Hey guys... just picked up this nifty little 54 from another HAMBer. its my first ford in a ford, ford. altogether a really straight little car. 302/c4. came complete with everything but the radio and all the dash lights work!!! hell, even the blower motor works! not sure which way to go with this one. my last car was was a kustom show car type car and it was anxiety city. gloss black. what a nightmare. i didnt want to get close to it or work on it. i only put about 10 miles on this ford today and i fell in love. it doesn't bang or drag and i have no anxiety about it getting fingerprints on it. i'm thinking about just re-shooting the lower body to fix some small inconsistencies in the paint, replacing all the weather stripping and straightening out the interior, but the bug to make it all slick and shiny is really what i'm fighting. maybe gloss black with a gold flake roof with gold dash and garnish moldings... black interior with gold piping.... anyhow... hope to learn a few things about these things. lots of good stuff already.
looks like your drivers door shuts like mine does. yeah i know, they all shut the same but i meant closes as tight as mine. it always looks like my door isnt completely shut and latched.
what size rims and tires do you have on there? I'm looking the exact same on my car. any backspacing on the rims?
tires are 205/75-15 .wheels are 15x6 reverse, but i dont know what the backspacing is. i do know that they are REAL tight on the fender lip and rub in corners.
Ok thanks, I ordered mine before I got your response hope they fit, got me a little scared now LoL, I went with 15x7 rims with reverse offset and 225-70-15 on back and 205-60-15 on front. Thanks for looking at them for me. You have a cool car there personally Id leave it like it is on the exterior
"Ok thanks, I ordered mine before I got your response hope they fit, got me a little scared now LoL, I went with 15x7 rims with reverse offset and 225-70-15 on back and 205-60-15 on front." Sircampsalot2 Here's a suggestion I learned the hard way: Ask questions first, order second.
on my 53, i would be afraid of trying to stuff 225's or 7 inch wide wheels into that dinky wheel well opening. i may have to change a tire on the side of the road, and would hate to call a tow truck to drag it home or to shop for "special tools" to change it. have read too many posts of people having to carry 2 or more jjacks and a lucky charm to get rear wheels off.
I am doing the Shackle flip and also have Air shocks on back with Extensions Im hoping this will make the difference.
"I am doing the Shackle flip and also have Air shocks on back with Extensions Im hoping this will make the difference." Please... Two (or more) wrongs won't make it right. Obviously it's your car so you can do what you want, but flipping the shackles and using extended air shocks is wrong in so many ways...
I mean, Yeah, that was the thing to do in the mid 60s, on bigger ford products, but I think these cars take too well to a big rake, they're comfy with their bottoms dragging the ground. Also! Sweet car, I saw it on the mainboard and liked it. Astros are a great looking wheel.
I have enough trouble getting my 670/15s off the rear with the 2inch blocks. I'd never get those wheels off. But, it's still a nice looking ride!
Sorry no one likes the look of alot of rake, I always did...thought it looked cool I was going to post a pic when i got them on but now i dont think i will. Oh well, I like the low and slow look also but for some reason always leaned toward the high in the back low in the front look.
Whoa, wait a minute - I like a rake better than a lawn mower/tail dragger look as well. Post your pics - I'd like to see 'em. But that's just my opinion, I know a lot of folks like the lowrider look too. And admittedly some cars probably look better low to the ground, vice hiked up in back. It's just a matter of preference - and what makes this hobby so much fun, eh? I always liked the rakey look. It's what I want to do this year with my '56 but I don't want to do shackle flips if I can help it. I'm hoping to do it with springs, shocks and maybe bigger tires in back, smaller in front. The big/back, small/front IMO is more of a muscle car era look but I do remember some of the kids in my neighborhood doing it back in the early 60s. I was a bit too young to drive back then but my older brother and his buds did a lot of that kind of stuff with their cars. Wish I had taken pictures of them.
Thanks Raceron I will post a pic when i get them on, I recieved the two back rims today and to my ****rin they stuck out too far because of the reverse offset so i sent them back to jegs and they are sending me two with standard offset. I also recieved the tires and they are nice and look like they will fit fine. Cant wait to get the rims back its gonna look sweeet! As soon as i get them in if they fit i will order two for the front and will be happy with the progress.
Thanks guys for your input I appreciate each and every one. when you guys tell me what you think it makes me think about things I havent contemplated before and will help me find the direction on this that I will be happy with in the end.
Oh yeah alteredpilot Im sorry! After reading back through your post and looking at that ride of yours I realized I was highjacking your thread! I dint mean too
Woah! My comment was not against the down-in-the-nose look, which I happen to like, it was about getting 225/70 x 15's on 7 inch reversed rims to fit on the back by raising the back with long shackles and air shocks! The idea that one should make up for choosing wildly improper wheels and tires by raising the rear of the car until they clear the fenders is not only tasteless and mechanically unsound, it also shows a profound death wish on the part of the owner. A car set up like that would not only be dangerously unstable under the best of conditions, it would also be a fatality waiting to happen in the wet or on anything but straight, smooth pavement. If Sircampsalot2's post was meant as a joke, I'm sorry I didn't get it. If he was serious, I'm glad I spoke up. I'd hate to lose a new member of this social group by remaining silent. I'm glad to see that he has reconsidered this action, but at the time he seemed to be convinced that it would work. I don't mean to be the old fart who is forever throwing cold water on every idea he disagrees with, but if jacked up rear ends were bad news in the '70s, they're still bad news today. My $.02
missysdad No I didnt take offense to your post I appreciate anything people have to throw in...I am serious about raising the rearend but not so much that I clear the top of the rear tire, I am just going high enough for the top of the tire to fit under the wheel well where the fender turns back in toward the frame. its about a two inch difference. I figure with flipping the shackle and with the airshocks I will lift the rear about 4" and thats about as high as I would want to go. Any higher and I agree it would probably fishtail alot.
Is a '54 that much tighter in back (wheel wells) than a '56? I don't know. And Eric as usual, you are correct in advising against doing unsafe stuff like hiking up cars so high in back as to make them dangerously unstable - I couldn't agree more! Being a kid 35-40 years ago, I did some of the stupid stuff - hiked up the ***-end of my 70 Satellite, put H60s on back with airshocks... that car was so back-end light that it'd get stuck in 2 or 3 inches of pea-gravel. And on wet pavement?? - had to be very careful for sure. Joking aside and in hindsight - it was a dumb thing to do. Remember awhile back I commented about my '56 being 'squirrely'? I haven't really done much to it other than put air shocks and extenders on back and run about 75lbs in 'em, actually it doesn't raise the rear very much. I've got 205-75R15s on stock 5" wheels; they look (and feel) too small on the car. It still has that 50s suspension under it - need I say more? I'm hesitant to go very fast with it. Well last fall, last cruise of the season, one of the shock extenders suffered 'catastrophic failure' - it let loose and the left side bottomed out while on the road. I limped it home; fortunately the only damage was to the extender and shock. So this year sometime it's getting 4 new springs (yes I'm gonna do the Aerostar fronts - that should drop it only about 2" - all I want to go) and I'm going to 235-75R15s on stock 6" rims and KYB gas shocks in back. Oh and the '84 TBird front swaybar too. I hope that doing this will serve 2 purposes - first and most importantly - make the car more stable, and second - it will give it just the slight rake I'm looking for, without using air shocks or extenders. Here's what it looks like now - slight rake but too 'spindley-looking' with the skinny tire/rim combo: (disregard the date - I forgot to reset the camera. Pic is from Sept 2010)
I see what you mean about the tires looking too small, I think your choice will look alot better. Nice Car
Ya, what racerron said. Just cuz I don't like it doesn't mean you shouldn't post a pic. Not everybody likes longroofs , but that doesn't stop me from building one.
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