1952-59 Ford Evintho's '54 Customline build

New to this group but your post is exactly what I was hoping to see! There are so many people out there that cannot do one fourth of what you have been able to do (myself included) but are here to learn and get ideas and hints. Awesome! Thanks for sharing.

 

Welcome to the group! Lots of good info here. I know 'cause I've learned a lot just reading old posts and asking a lot of dumb questions! BTW, anyone can do what I'm doing. Research, basic tools and lots of patience. Most of the stuff I'm figuring out as I go along. Occasionally, I have to do it twice!

 

I’m new too, and I’ve followed this build too, and it’s given me the confidence to jump in and try it. So far the group has been great for bouncing ideas and offering guidance. I see you’re in Rickreall - I’m just down the road in West Salem - right on!

 

sometimes i make the same mistake 5 or 6 times...just to make sure

 

Oh Man! Another victim of the west Salem bridge traffic jam! Anyone who likes 50's Fords is a friend already. Mark

 

I have reached the age where I judge the success of home projects by how many trips to the hardware store I make till I get it done. Right now 4 is about average for plumbing and 3 for electrical. BUT, for my car projects it is usually many trips to the parts store, wrecking yard, friends shop stash of parts, swap meets, hot rod club members, and cl***ified ads. Much more fun and I might have to change direction on my build several times because of what I found at all the above mentioned places. And I like it that way!

 

Well the entire month of November was a wash! On election day myself and my whole family contracted Covid-19. Just in the last week I'm starting to get out and work on the '54 a little. Before I went down I got a few things done so here's an update.
I was able to blast and prime all the inner fenders, core support, etc.



I noticed the cardboard diffuser in the heater box was shabby. When I grabbed it, it crumbled in my hand! Welded up a new one out of 18ga sheetmetal. Yeah, I know it's upside down!



Moving on....prepped the donor Mustang for drivetrain removal and out it came.





Separated the ****** and put the 5.0 on the stand. Now I was able to test my homemade engine rotator and it worked like a charm! Here's the write-up on that......
My cheap homemade engine stand rotator. - The Garage Journal Board







Before I went down I was able to make it to Pick-N-Pull and grabbed a driveshaft from an '85 LTD which had the perfect length and correct yoke for the AOD. I wonder if I picked up Covid there?





Slid the motor/trans into place. This is for mock-up only. I need to decide where all the peripherals will be placed and determine what mods are necessary.





The Hedman 88400's fit as snug as a bug in a rug!



The donor Mustang's radiator was a new replacement so I decided to use that. It's a crossflow, thin and the factory transmission lines along with radiator hoses bolt right up! No brainer!



More to come!

 

Sorry to hear about the COVID. I am glad you and your family are recovering.

Car is looking good. Are you going to run the factory ECM or are you using a PIMP or MS?

 

Lookin good Eventho. I am about ready to go to pwr brakes. I forgot what it takes to stop a 3000? lb vehicle..Was wondering if the booster you used went on without any mods. How about the pedal push rod? I presume i would need to mod the original to accept the threaded rod on the booster. Thanks for any advice....

 

So glad you recovered. Good work as usual.

 

bad luck about the virus,get well soon.
thats a neat install and the car is looking great

 

Thanks, we're all doing much better now. I'll be running the ECU and wiring harness pirated from the donor Mustang.

Very minor mods only. It's been awhile but I believe I had to open up the large center hole on the firewall to accept the rubber boot that covers the push rod. I also added metal to the brake mount 'cause the booster mounting holes are a bit different and I wanted the new holes to be supported by the brake mount. Probably overkill on my part!



In addition, IIRC, I utilized the factory '54 pushrod, cut the end off of that, threaded it and used a threaded coupling to connect it to the threaded rod on the booster. This gave me a somewhat adjustable pushrod. I used a jam nut to lock it all in. This allowed me to use the neat little ring that slides over the factory bolt to connect to the brake pedal.

 

Glad to hear you guys are recovering!
Great work as always! Would you know what years/ models these driveshaft would work? wonder if crown vics and grand marquis would be the same...
Always look forward to your updates!

 

Not sure on the Grand Marquis. That's a good question and could be another source! '80s cars are getting few and far between at the Pick-N-Pulls!

This from the sticky on page 1.............

1952-56 Ford drive shaft info. With a 302/AOD or C4 swap you can use a 1982-86 Ford Crown Vic drive shaft. It has the correct front yoke for both. You can bolt it up to the stock 1949-56 Ford stock rear ends by using a NEAPCO 2-0291 U-Joint. The NAPA unit is part # Perfection 506.

 

Thanks for the info on the Pwr Brake booster. Should be pretty easy to convert. My brake foot will appreciate it

 

You can see the 1986 Crown Vic driveshaft in my '54 here. I had to have it shortened 1.5" because my AOD is from a Lincoln MK VII. 1982-86 Interchange. If you find a donor in a Pick N Pull have it checked for straightness as they will use those huge forklifts to move the cars around. Mine came from an all Ford parts salvage where they were labeled and laying in a bin so I brought my trusty tape measure and used this as a guide. https://www.dennysdriveshaft.com/how_to_measure.html

 

Good point, Jeff. There's a little bit of a dent in mine. May have come from a forklift. Hopefully a driveshaft shop can iron that out.
Also, I mocked mine up under the car. I removed the '85 rear u-joint, haven't installed the NEAPCO u-joint yet but it looks like only 1-1/2" of slip yoke is engaged in the trans tailshaft. Is that enough?

 

On my 55 Fairlane I used a driveshaft from a 1988 Town car, It seemed to be the same as the crown vic and mercury Grand Marquis. 302 w C4 swap installed.

 

if the 1 1/2'' is when suspension hanging(on jackstands)you will probably be good if sitting static ( on the ground)I would think no.

 

Check out the Denny's driveshaft link posted above just to be sure, but do it with the new u-joint installed.

 

Yeah, I gotta go to NAPA and pick that up. Thanks!

 

Lookin sweet =)

 

Another update. There's a million tasks that need to be completed. Just trying to methodically do them one at a time. More metal work. I had already replaced the trunk extensions but I still had to replace the rear valance panels that I cut out to get to the trunk extensions! Formed up a length of 18ga....



Welded it in.....


Ground down the welds......



Did the same to the other side....



Done.



Next up, the heater blower motor was right on top of the m*** airflow pieces. Had to make more room....



Took 1-1/2" out of the lower mount....





Plenty of room now....



Next up is fuel lines. Trying to utilize everything I can from the donor Mustang so I pulled the hardlines from the tank to the fuel rail. I also used the factory Mustang fuel filter bracket. Cut, rewelded and flipped it upside down....



Turns out, I had to cut 5' out of the center section to make the lines work....



I was only able to use the front and rear sections....





I joined the two together with some NAPA fuel line. I know how some feel about unions in fuel lines but, I have a couple on the roadster and have never had a leak.



The nice thing about the Mustang hardlines is you can utilize the factory soft lines also and they hook right up to fuel rail with the spring connectors...



The engine control wiring was daunting. Not too hard, just time consuming....


Had to clean, organize and ohm out each wire then decide which circuits could be eliminated and which ones needed to stay. Had to shorten (and sometimes lengthen) a few wires but I think I've got it pretty much squared away now. I would have been lost without this.......



Got the ECU and power relay mounted and most all the wires run....



Mustangs had the data link connectors just flopping around under the hood. I wanted something a little neater so I moved them to the interior and built a box that tucks up under the dash with a removeable cover so the connector just drops down below the dash where you can plug in your code reader...







Keeping with the theme of using donor parts, I adapted the stock Mustang AOD shifter to the '54. Not sure what I'm gonna do about a console or interior just yet, but I'll get around to it. In the meantime, now I can shift the transmission....





Moving up front. I wanted to use the stock Mustang radiator but it was just a little to tight for the SPAL 16" electric fan I intend to run. Some surgery was required.



Removed the core support plus a couple of inches on each side....



I moved the radiator forward about 2-1/2", welded some lower mounts to the top of the crossmember and made the upper mount out of 1" flatbar which also ties both sides of the car together. Rock solid!...



The front pan required some notching....



Even made a couple of sheetmetal covers to cover the tanks...



Got my MAF and cold air intake fabbed up and mounted today. Used a 3-1/2" 90* to tie into the MAF and make the transition through the inner fender panel...


Then I attached my K&N cone filter and even made up a debris guard for it.



Well, you guys wanted pics. I just reached the HAMB limit! I'll continue with a 'reply'. Almost done!

 

Also, for anyone that's plans to run a serpentine belt and after much research, I found a way around the $300 March pulley setup. I'm using the stock '93 Mustang crank pulley, a Ford Racing short water pump (best price I found)
https://thmotorsports.com/42780-ford-racing-m-8501-g351-water-pumps-mechanical

and this AutoSpecialties water pump pulley
https://www.summitracing.com/parts/asp-820021

Lines up perfectly! I still need to fab an alternator bracket.



Decided to get a better perspective so I threw on some sheetmetal and dropped it to the ground. Next month will be one year since I started the build. I think I've got quite a bit accomplished in that time. I'm pretty happy today!









Until next time!

 

Nice work, going to be a nice one.

 

Very impressive. On the electronics, figuring out what's what in the entire system is not for amateurs. I'm not sure there are many auto electrical pros that can do what you did. As I said, very impressive. The mechanical stuff is impressive also. 1993 is OBD1, I ***ume you know someone who can reprogram the cpu? You?
JFYI, if you do need special metric (or Ford Springlock) to AN (or whatever)fittings, Pure Choice Motorsports in Lake Havasu is the place to go.

 

Everything is looking good. I like the way you did the radiator and air filter.

 

I think that once you learn what to do you will be able to tackle a modded old car

 

No need to reprogram the ECU. Everything is as it was when it came out of the Mustang (minus a few unnecessary circuits). I did the same thing with my roadster only it was an '87 ECU (OBD1) and a motor with four less cylinders.
Also, thanks for the link! Finding some of those connectors and fasteners is always a challenge. Very good resource!

 

My bad......I didn't see the O2 sensors the first time thru.
Pure Choice is great....most of their stuff is made in house. I stopped in one day when I was visiting Arizona to pick up a few things. They were out of one adapter I needed, and I asked the guy if he could mail one to me. He said he could, but if I wanted to wait 1/2 hour, he'd make one for me. He then told me about a speed shop around the corner I could visit while I was waiting. It was a good day. It's a father and son operation, and the place is well organized. Shelves of tool holders for their cnc lathes all set and ready to go, so they can pull up a program, pop a few of the preset tool holders in, and do a run with minimal set-up time.
They do everything needed plumbing-wise for our hobby whether it be off-road, hot rods, racing, etc. A lot of the stuff you and I dealt with is Metric.....and we're adapting most of it to sae , AN, etc. They've got tons of adapters. I'm using their springlock adapters to my ss fuel lines and A/C lines. Using their metric adapters on my Master cyl. for the brake lines, etc. Lots of other stuff I'm not remembering at the moment.