Projects Crazy Legs My 54 Ford Build Thread - Old Custom

That's really funny, the pics up thru the trunk floor, cause it WAS the cherriest(sp?) part of the car. I think it looks Great laid out, too! Nice work!!... Rear frame notch is "the next big thing!"... need to flake or pearl the top too, who would do that?....tell Gracie I love her!

 

I just realized how bad the quality of the latest pics are lol - next ones i take I'll make sure they look better before posting them

Hey (No Plan) yeah I know a guy who can lay the flake! Come on over & make that happen, the A/C is on & pop in the fridge

 

Check the social group, I swore someone had a spare 54 dash there for sale recently.

 

That 54 Chev grill is a great fit, looks as if it came from factory !!! The 54 front looks good with the hood corners rounded and a slight peak on the "nose" of the hood. Keep us posted,..you have a great ride !!!!!!!!!!

4TTRUK

 

Update 7-16-12
It was too hot to do anything outside this weekend so I spent some time in my shop with the A/C on kill working on the Ford. I needed to remove the engine & trans so I can start smoothing the firewall but I needed to put the hood on first to check for hood to engine clearance & to my surprise it fit great, even with that tall truck intake I still have an inch or 2 before it'll hit the hood, where's a blower when I need it!?






I couldn't resist pushing it outside & get a few shots of it after a good washing.

Here it is with the front air'd up all the way (it will never be this high at any point of its life)



No air in front











Here are a few of the soon to be notch idea







Thanks to "No Plan" we pushed it back in, removed the hood, engine, & trans so I could get a few shots of our rack install (obviously is not 100% complete)







Next on the list is to remove the holes in the firewall & start on the radiator support to accommodate the newer LS Camaro radiator & fans

 

i'd like to see a shot of your bottom column support now that it does not go into the steering box

 

Sweet!

 

I just came back from my shoulder surgury physical therapy(!!BITCH!!) & stopped by Eric's garage to do some more figuring on the rear frame notch. The x-member doesn't need to be as deep as it is now setting. I think - while we are at it - might as well narrow the rear frame rails on the out side edge for more tire clearance, 2" ea. side should do it, & wider & taller wheel tubs for 28" tall tires. I know he's planning on running this at Salina's street drags, soooo lets make it so he can! (Do you think those wood spacers under the bag x-member will hold up to a LS 6.0 with massive amounts of nitrous!!!HAHAHAHA!--I can't wait to see smoke rolling out from under(?)the fender skirts & past the continental. I've never seen a kustom with a line lock! With a 3.73 9" rear, & od. this thing is going to get crazy!) I must be taking way too many pain meds.--back to reality, next up is notch, shocks & panard bar. See you at the Meltdown, & then Salina!!!! Have fun with what you're doing!,I am.

 

Fiddy Four - Currently there is no support but we machined a piece of Delrin that supports the actual shaft inside the column but still working on the actual mount that'll be on the floor/firewall area. My plan is to add the sheetmetal first to fill in the majority of the material gone around the old area that went through the original floor, then come up with an idea. Somewhere on the HAMB said something about using a steel martini glass lol
BTW, I'm open for ideas!?

No Plan --- lol......omg I can see it now!

 

i think that was a SS martini shaker!, most are kind of Coke glass shaped.---Anybody out there on this traditional forum ever narrowed the rear frame rails w/ a notch on airbags? lol

 

whoops my bad...... (damn kids anyway)

 

Nice car keep up the good work

 

The whole air bag/ lay frame thing is alien to me (aussie roads), but this car looks in good hands- it has bodywork issues like my own car. Dig your driveline/ chassis & car's KKOA- style good looks.

 

Small update, unfortunately I'm still working on the house & haven't had any time to work on the Ford but on the bright side I have ordered a bunch of crap to help out when I do get to start on it again.

Ordered a Lokar 4L80e 32" double bend shifter, a new 64-68 Mustang gas tank which will fit perfect between the frame rails & will replace 80% of the floor, Night prowler full length fender skirts, & a GM MAF I needed for the LS swap.

I hope to have all the house stuff done by October so i can spend all winter long working on it.

I will update asap when something else happens

 

Just caught up on your build and it is very cool, love the engine too! I'm putting a 5.3 in my '66 Chevy II Wagon......

I lived in Oskaloosa from 1971-1984, just wondered if I know your Dad. I knew alot of the guys that were in the Skunk River Club back in those days, Kenny Stek (now in Ottumwa), The Fox brothers, ahhhh .... come on brain..... I'm not sure if Gary Kelderman was or not, Dennis "Shorty" Clark R.I.P., .....
I'm Glenn Hayes by the way.

 

Glenn you've got the right guys, John ("No Plan" on the HAMB) is my dad, Steve's my uncle, Ken, Shorty, know/knew them all. - I'm currently finish up a major "siding my house" project then I'll be back on the 54 asap & will be posting updates as much as possible

 

So, how did the house siding turn out ?

 

unfortunately i'm still working on it 3 of the 4 sides are done though, planning on being done by the end of this month. The biggest issue I've got is by the time i get off work its dark & lately it rains on the weekends........ = slow progress.

I do have a small update on the 54, I'm still waiting on LT1swap.com to send back my reflashed PCM & wiring redo, I'm having a local friend setup my 9" Ford diff w/ a posi & 3.70 gear, new bearings etc.
My dad found a guy in Texas I believe that had a Lincoln trunk lid in a junk yard that he had sawsall the bump of the "fake continental" kit off and sent to us to help get the correct contour of the new molded in kit. I'll take some pics & show you guys what I mean.

 

What an interesting ride, it will be on my car search list for Salina KKOA. You do some excellent work bro, no heat on the drive train, you are approaching it very nicely. That will cruz so sweet. Rock on bro, ~sololobo~

 

This car is gonna be so cool,and the work looks great. HRP

You mentioned looking for a 54 Dash earlier in this thread,check this one out in the classifieds.

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=735848&highlight=1954+ford+dash

 

Very cool HRP,

I had some time last night & snapped these 2 pics of better understanding of what I'm talking about with the molded in cont. kit into the trunk lid.......



This is obviously no trunk lid & the Lincoln trunk bubble just mocked up

And this is with this "steel" spare tire cover I found in Salina that we will try to use as well....



I hope you get an idea, obviously there will be a ton of work involved but I like the molded in idea alot more than the "stuck on" cont. kit from the original starting point

 

love the build, thats a great looking car. your continental kit idea is not bad at all. if it were mine (and it's not) I wouldn't do any body mods, other than if you could get the chop thing worked out.

 

Awesome project! You don't see nearly enough 52-54 Fords and Mercurys being built!

(And the LS series engine is killer...no appologies needed!)

 

50mercfan, I hear that for sure. My goal is to get this on the road by 2013 Spring/summer.... I think its possible but obviously not finished

Fat Hack, very true. maybe there's reason lol j/k

Thanks guys!

 

Update! Well good news is house siding is finally been, Vette engine is out & the car is out of the garage, its cleaned and its time to kick ass on the Ford until its done!

I know most of you don't care for the LS engine idea so ignore this first part but for the rest read on, I got a chance to finish swapping parts over, torqing down & finish painting & detailing the 6.0 & its now 100% ready to bolt in for the final time whenever that maybe. I sent my original truck wiring to Brendan at LT1swap.com and he stripped it and rewired it w/ all the fuses/relays I needed and its back now & looks like it will work great. I'm planning on running the truck intake just because it fits under the hood & it looks proportionally correct in the engine bay, putting the smaller/lower LS6 intake on it makes it look like someone swapped in a 4 banger in it cuz it looks so small. Here's a final pic of it before I put it in a bag in the corner until I'm ready for it. Kinda a waste of time since the hood will never be open but oh well.



Oh and here is my purrrty crew chief helping me this past weekend.



My dad "No Plan" is starting back up on the rear notch for the airbags as well now that the shoulder surgery has healed up. (No pics of that yet) and I've got a buddy that put my 9" posi together for me w/ the 3.70 gear on it and it should be done soon.

Next on the list is to "redo" the fittings & location of the fittings on the front air bags. I have them neat & discreet now but I started thinking about what it would be like if an airline or something else that needed to be fixed on the road and I had a quick nightmare in my head cuz currently I'd have to drop the lower control arm then remove the airbag completely just to replace the line or whatever; so I'm going to extend the fitting up so its through the frame so I can access it if needed. (I'll post pics when I get working on that part)

 

nice car!

 

holy shit!....i love the moulding of the spare tire!. I think that a very cool idea. I am a diehard mopar guy, but these cars are some of the coolest to ever come out. Nice job, i be tuned in....HELLVIS

 

Update: We have been able to put a lot of time towards the Ford and here are some progress pics.

This is the stock firewall with 39 holes that needed to be filled, some small, some need major work



Here it is all filled in with new metal & the new 68 mustang master cylinder mount done as well. I’m going to put some primer on it to see how it blocks out then add some filler where needed.





Here is the new “C-notch” my dad “No plan” has been working on, you may ask why we didn’t just build it in the car like you normally would? Mainly because we narrowed the frame 2-1/4” on each side so if needed I could put some good sized tires on it down the road.

The 2600lb air bags will basically mount on top of the axle tube. We would of used rectangular tubing but at the time we didn’t know how we were going to narrow the frame, keep it all together till the end, mock it up, weld it in, & keep it all square. We used 3/16” plate was used & tig’d together. Here are a few shots of it. I thought it came out very nice!! Thanks Dad!











Here is a shot of it in the car along with the stock frame still in place.



You can see how much narrower the frame is these pics and how we will tie it into the stock frame in front, notice in the last pic how he’s made slots in the stock frame so the new subframe slides inside, then we’ll weld it in front and back then like normal cut out the old frame.





That’s the latest Stay tuned!

 

Looks good man. I feel your pain about the firewall - finding and filling in the holes in my '54 took forever. Just curious, why did you block off both fresh air ducts?

 

Absolutely beautiful work. HRP