1952-59 Ford my 4.6 dohc powered 57 Custom, aka, doing it the easy way

I had Auto City Cl***ic pull that with a gl*** order... back and forth. Finally I called customer service and said for them to leave the $*%^ing thing on the front steps.

 

Mine had nothing to do with the dealer, it is/was strictly a series UPS screwups starting with the attempted delivery to a wrong address when they had the correct address.
I'm confused...I don't see how or why you think Auto City Cl***ic would want to screw up your delivery. If signature is not required, the shipping service just leaves it on the doorstep anyways. Did Auto City Cl***ic request a signature without advising you?

 

Yes they did, I had no idea until after the fact. The did send me the wrong gl*** first, twice! And didn't even ask for the wrong stuff back.

 

I got back from Phoenix this afternoon. The springs I had ups trouble with were here waiting for me, as was the 4th Rocket wheel that had been on backorder for 2 months. I ran over to the shop that is modifying my differential, and he is still waiting for some parts to come in..looks like it's gonna be a few weeks yet, but that's ok..still need to pick up some final ***embly stuff anyways, and it'll be a few weeks before I have $ for the disc brake kit. No insurance on the car yet, except for a binder...whatever that means. Grundy is looking for additional info again. That's ok...better to get things sorted out up front than have problems down the road.

 

You're getting there. I have to get my car insured and registered soon too. With some luck I'll have the engine back in a couple of weeks from the rebuilder.

 

Not too much to update on in the past few weeks. I'm still waiting on my differential. I'm hoping it will be done soon. I needed a little roadtrip, so drove out to Oklahoma City (Cl***ic Auto Parts) and picked up some new spring shackles, rubber isolator pads and new metal isolator retainers. Those $100 bills sure get eaten up fast! I did get the new springs cleaned of the preservative coating and painted satin black.I'm in process of cleaning up the underside of 6 years of spinderwebs and dust since I painted everything under there. I also got a lot of overspray on the painted undercariage from when I did the topside bodywork, so I'm cleaning up alot of that and touching up the paint. I want to get that all done, at least on the back end, before I reinstall the differential.
Also, I did get my insurance finalized thru Grundy (about 1/2 of Haggerty), so I was able to go to the DMV with my proof of insurance and get the car registered. Sort of a milestone I guess!
In Texas you can register a car as an antique with restricted usage (most of the guys around here ignore the restrictions). The advantage of the antique registration is that there is no inspection required. I'm not worried about p***ing an inspection, but legally, you would have to have a car towed to places like exhaust and alighnment shops to get final work done on a car to p*** the inspection required to register a car normally.
At some point in time, I'll get the car inpected and change the registration to the cl***ic designation, which has no restrictions.

 

Texas, there isn't really an advantage to registering as a cl***ic, unless you just want the cl***ic plates. You also don't need to go to the exhaust shop, you only have to p*** a "safety inspection". I bought some 1953 Texas plates off Ebay, and registered my car normally using those plates. I then drove to the local inspection place and got my inspection done (it only cost like 10 bucks for the safety check) and I don't have to worry about the antique limitations. (not that anyone cares anyway, but I know my luck)


edit* apparently you have to register as a cl***ic or antique to use YOM plates. I don't remember having to do that, but i think cl***ic vs regular registration is only an extra 10 bucks.

 

Correct, but there is an advantage to registering it as an antique...the no inspection required, but along with that comes the supposed restrictions...shows, parades, etc.
To register as a cl***ic it requires a safety inspection prior to them issuing the registration, no different than our daily drivers now.
I'm right along side of you on the "with my luck" comment.

 

I had one cop tell me I couldn't have my plates on my car (it was in a parking lot and he was just being nice), but I told him they were legal so he did a quick run of the plates and they came back tied to me and a 53' ford. Apparently he'd never seen that before and thought it was pretty cool. I don't believe he was a traffic cop.

 

I put year of manufacture plates on mine. Has mileage limitations but the mileage going to and from shows does not count so it's pretty easy to get around the restrictions. There is either a show or cruise night constantly in the summer.

 

Still cleaning up the underside of overspray and 6 years of shop grime since I painted everything under there.
I did get my differential back last week. Everything seems to be just right/as planned on it. Final cost was exactly as estimated, so that was great. I got it pretty much installed today. I just need to torque down the spring u bolts and bushings. The differential was installed with new springs, bushings, new isolator rubber and isolator retainers and new u bolts. I replaced the oem 4 leaf springs with 6 leaf ones I got from McVeighs.
The differential, btw, now has a Yukon clutch type trac-loc, new 31 spline axles, new 3.50 gears, bearings seals, hardware, and a 1" taller pinion yoke. I had the case narrowed 3/4 per side and old style big bearing caps put on.
I had to change the rear u joint on the driveshaft to mate with the new pinion yoke, but that turned out to be super easy. I just needed the '95 Mark VIII oem ujoint with one set of caps changed to a bigger dia. I got the new ujoint installed this afternoon, and the front spline engagement at the ****** is now perfect. That's an unaltered aluminum driveshaft from the same donor Mark VIII as the engine/******. Sliding the driveshaft all the way forward til it bottoms out at the ******, I have about 3/8 clearance to the flat forward surface above the ujoint's "nest" in the yoke. That figures out to about 1" total free slide of the driveshaft on the ****** after ***embly. Should be more than enough to allow for differential movement.
I also got some Magnaflow mufflers, and today I had the local custom exhaust shop make me a couple 26" long pipes with a female bell flare on one end to mate with the H-pipe already on the car. Hopefully tommorrow I'll get the mufflers at least temporarily installed so I can see what I need to do to route them and the rest of the exhaust without interfering with the cables for the e-brake. I don't have the rear brakes yet...waiting for another payday.

 

Good luck with all the pending matters. I'm having my car inspected tomorrow.
Regards

 

Some pics of the progress. Love new stuff!!
AJRacing9...if you're seeing this, both pics show the fuel lines we were pm'ing back and forth about.

 

Tex your car is brand new all the way... Congrats. What's with the rag at the shackels?
Are the fuel tank straps new as well? Im getting a new tank but I see no reason why I shouldnt refurbish the old ones.

 

BTW, my car cleared road inspection

 

Congrats! I'm gonna be really annoyed if mine doesn't! lol.
The rag on the shackle was to remind me I still needed to torque down the nuts/bolts on it. I'd just make notes, but then I'd forget where I left the notes, if I remembered that I even made a note to be looking for.
Yes, tank, tank straps are new as well as rubber strips between the tank and straps, and all new mounting hardware.

 

I don't see rear shocks or any place to mount them, am I missing something? Great job, almost finished.

 

No rear shocks yet...or fronts, for that matter. Rears...the lower mount bracket is the heavy plate the u-bolts go thru. If you look at those plates in the first pic you can see the ears. The top mount bracket is welded to the upper crossmember and is not in view in the pics.
No rear brakes yet either.

 

This thread moved to the bottom of page 2...must be time for an update.
I've been driving it around the neighborhood quite a bit. It runs better and better every time I restart it. It's the computer relearning what the engine needs. It's real close to the way it ran when it was still in the Mark VIII.....smooth as silk.
Had an issue with an adapter on the master cylinder...brake line was leaking just a tiny bit, but I stripped out the threads on the br*** adapter trying to tighten it. Had to order another fitting from Pure Choice Motorsports. Got that put in and the lines bled..no leaks now. The car stops on a dime now even with just the front brakes.
Had an issue with getting my car in/out of my work shed since I rebuilt and extended the back deck on the house earlier this year. Took almost an hour to get it out, and creased the f.r. fender doing it...damn!! Anyway, widened the shed door by 22", so now I can drive in and out without a problem.
I ordered a rear disc brake kit this morning. I found a Summit Racing kit that uses a FORD (T-Bird) caliper instead of the more commonly used GM caliper. Pretty similar to a kit ABS sells for 540 + shipping, but this one was on sale for 432 w/ free shipping.
I also ordered front and rear shocks for it.
We've got an ice storm going on here, but next week is suppose to be nice, so I'm hoping to get the car over to the alignment shop. He's an old school mechanic/alignment spe******t, and aside from aligning the car, getting the rack set, etc., is going to go thru everything underneath as a double check on me/my work.

 

Finally got my Summit brake kit in tonight. There was a 3 day delay in Fort Worth due to the ice storm last weekend. Kit looks good. I found out from packaging, the brake kit is made by Stainless Steel Brakes www.SSB.com
Some general inf to p*** on so you don't run into the same problem I did:
As most know, Ford 9" differentials have small bearings/end caps or big bearings with two different style bolt patterns on the end caps (old style, and Torino new style). They also have different offsets, most being either 2.36 or 2.50. A lot of the brake kits come with different brackets and different spacers so one kit can cover more than one application....the typical "universal".
What I did not know until recently, is that a specific offset is matched up (OEM) to a specific bearing style. In other words, a Torino bolt pattern differential has a 2.5 offset, and an old style bolt pattern is paired up with a 2.36.
The problem I ran into was once I found the exact kit I wanted, it was a version that was made for a specific oem differential...in my case the big bearing old style with 31 spline axles that normally has the 2.36 offset. When I had my differential redone, I told him to make the ends old style (another mistake...more is available for the new style), with a 2.5 offset. That as I explained is a "mismatch". My error, but the differential shop is going to remachine the bearing shoulder on the axlesso the offset matches my brake kit. He is also going to remachine the unexplicably large axle hub dia. to match the center hole in the rotors. He's doing this for no charge....something I wasn't expecting since at least part of my issue was my fault.

 

Update...still waiting for the axels to come back so I can install the rear disc kit. In the meantime, I'm getting some odds and ends done. Started the trunk seal installation last night. If I can get my garage warm enough today, I'll finish that up. Got the rear shocks mounted. Can't remember if I posted anything on the rear shocks before, but I'm using '55 shocks, not '57's. They allow the rear end to drop all the way down for tire changes. If any '57 guys need more info, just ask.
I've also been touching up some of the inevitable scratches on my car I got when I installed the painted panels alone.
Had another leaking problem with the same line of the master cylinder that was leaking before. Thought I had fixed it, but frequent checking determined I hadn't. I had made a new ss line reusing the same fittings I used the first time. Tried tightening a little more and stripped it out again. WTF??? I knew this time I hadn't overtightened. I pulled that new line off, and used a premade line bent in a "U" to get the open end up above the master so it wouldn't drain out. As I was installing that, I got thinking..."what am I doing, the adapter is stripped out, so this one is just going to leak as well." I was almost tight, so I kept going just to see what happened, and to my surprise, it not only tightened, but I tested it and was able to tighten it a lot more than I normally would even try. So...mystery solved, I think...I apparently got some brake tube fittings with threads not machined properly. I sure wasn't expecting that!! I don't have thread pitch mics, and can't find my thread wires set, so I don't know positively, but one fitting won't tighten, another will, so I think it's a safe ***umption.

 

The red arrows point where the rear shocks mount.HRP

 

Neet arrows!

 

They were neat arrows..thanks HRP. Here's a pic with the shocks. Note the differential is in a fully hanging down position, not held up by the shocks. The frame-to-differential brake line is now hooked up also. I lost my axel housing breather bolt for the brake line connector block, and couldn't find one with the correct thread so made a breather bolt fron a 7/16-20 hex bolt. I widened the split on a split washer, so the bolt head didn't seal off the breather hole, if that makes any sense.

 

Yup, makes sense, you cut a bit of one of those spring washers, right?

 

Looks wrapped up under there, exhaust plan?

 

Not wrapped up...I'm waiting to get my axles back reworked so I can install the disc brake kit I got in last week. After that, I'll need to get some e-brake cables made. Then the exhaust. I had originally planned on doing that myself, but it's getting too hard for me to do a major project under the car, so I'm going to run it to a local custom exhaust shop here and be done with it. They're going to start back at the downpipes/H-pipe I've put in and tweek things from there. My plans are to go straight back and exit under the rear pan. That may change...I'm not against side exiting pipes behind the wheels if it's easier for the installers. I'm not sure what the tips will be..probably oval.
I also have 2 of the 5 bumper stops to install yet.
I'm hoping to have the brakes and exhaust wrapped up by the end of the year.

 

I like chrome out the back to keep the fumes away and I like chrome out the side, for you car, I think out the side with black tips like you would find on a lighting p/u would suit

 

I'll google it and see what they look like..thanks for the suggestion

 

I'm having my exhaust taken out to the back bumper, with turn-downs towards the side, not straight out like a lot that I see.