well i said i try and get some pic's of my car from the midnight m*** car show but didnt have any good ones ,so i took a couple pic's of my car at my pop's house we had a bbq get together with some friends , my pop's has the 51 dodge coronet in the garage ,mom has the desoto,and the chevy truck's belong to some friends....i have body work to do,and im shaving handles ,need to line up body lines,then repaint it(will have trim) but heres the pics of it finally drivable.....
Great to be driving again isn't it? Car is looking good and how cool is it that both mom & dad drive old cars.
Thanks guys! it still needs alot of work , i wanted to metal flake/lace paint the top, with the flat black, but now its been a couple years i dont know how i feel about it,and the vision for the car....my pop's house is always fun he bbq almost everyday of the year it seems and theres always sombody with a older car showing up,its like our own car show all the time, My cousin and uncle also own older rides ...its a family affair!
OK!! I guess i will make this kinda like my build thread thread but of my old photos till now....keep in mind this has taken a long time to get to this point,many delays of life.....HERE WE GO!!! Here's of the first day i got the fordor,it was a Michigan car ...body was sculpted out of bondo you could bump the car and there would be a ring of rust on the ground.. New side gl*** for fordor the gl*** it had was missing or craked..... here's my first purchase on ebay ever, dog dish hubcaps..... my new shine grill and painted splash apron..... Replacement crossmember since the o.g. rotted out... heres a pic of the fordor with my ghetto two tone primer paint job and me thinking i was cool with my new coker whitewall tires and dummy spot lights....Right around this time in 2007 i blew the 239v8 going to billet proof car show..... Time for my version of a two door conversion!!! fordor and the tudor replacment... dis***embling the fordor.... My cousin "GLENDALE" here on the HAMB hard at work....... this is what most of the fordor body looked like...
fordor body off.... man power to swap bodys.... tudor body on....."RUSK" here on the HAMB in the black shirt.... tudor with the fordor front clip....still need a new front fenders these have bondo... 239 i blew up pulled out.. 292 put in...but motor was bad so it now has a 272 will have to get a picture of 272....also rewired car at this time....... Going to exhaust shop to get dual exhaust 1 3/4 straight pipes.... Going to bare metal..... In primer.... going in for my first paint job ive ever done...."GLENDALE" mixing paint... John deere blitz black.... then current state of my 54....272 with a wilcap adapter and th350 trans with a gennie floor shifter..and added cherry bombs.....as you can see in picture i have had to fix some things on body and primer some stuff still have more to do,my first paint job didnt come out as good as i hoped and i want to french headlights and tail light bezels so a new paint job is in store. have to mention that before buying this car i didnt have a clue about anything automotive and everything except the exhaust has been done by me and in a driveway or my pop's back 40,cross-member replacement a body swap,three motor's and two ****** swaps but finally driving again after 4 years...want to give a special thanks to my cousin,pops,everyone here,guys on the y-block fourm,54 ford fourm,ford barn,and my friends.........and a number of diffrent girlfriends HAHA will post more as it progresses.
The most recent progress on the 54....... and the 272 that i swapped a 4bbl intake on with a edelbrock...... theses i recently picked up at the arco arena swap meet here in sacramento..
What a great story and you did one hell of a good job for being your first build ! That just shows that if you put your mind to it , you can build the car you want and the way you want it to be like ! As for the bondo , I have pictures of my 55 fordor where the same thing was done to it . The last owner much have had a Rivet business because I have never seen so damn many rivets in a car like mine had . My car was butchered up something terrible . I am in the process of doing it the right way so I have been without my car since about March ! I will tell the rest when I get mine done and post all the pictures I have taken of mine . BTW , I have no one to help me so I am doing mine all by myself ! You are very lucky to have some family to help you with your build ! Keep the story and pictures coming ! Jim
Hey Tim, when you were over here at my place today and said you had a tudor that used to be a fordor I knew it sounded familiar - I read this thread last week. I just didn't realize you were in Sacramento! This is really impressive work. Complete body swaps aside, I wish I had the guts to strip, prime, and paint my Ford. I just avoid the "show" and keep dumping money into the "go" parts because that's what I'm comfortable with. Although, a while back I did do the sound deadening like you. It wasn't fun but I'm glad I did it - that stuff makes such a difference. Based on what I read, it looks like your car is on the road(?). When I get mine roadworthy we'll have to meet up somewhere around here and talk cars. -Eric
eric id rather have the go then the show anyways lol your car doesnt look bad at all as far as "show".... well i started a thread on the main board for a build thread but ill just post the same thing for all you 52-56 guys that dont check out the main board all the time..... here's the new stuff... Dropping the 272 in...... Sorry for the poor lighting and ****py cell phone pics, but this is for anyone interested in the wilcap adapter install of the y-block to th350. here is what you get adapter,hub spacer,mopar mini starter,bolt pack,and a flywheel not in the picture... i missed taken a picture of bolting just the adapter to the block but it pretty self explanatory...there's a bolt at each bottom corner of adapter the bolts to engine block,and two off-set bolt/stud's that are at each top corner of adapter...then you put the spacer on the crank hub(very tight fit),then bolt the flywheel on to spacer and hub... this is about the most tricky part about the install! on the top if you look close youll see the off-set bolt/studs that bolt in to the block thur the adapter, if you look close there is black sharpie marks that have to line up so the studs will line up for the bolt holes on the ******. make sure you use lock-tight and let it setup so they will not move when you try to install the trans..... here's the mopar mini starter bolted up to make sure it was going to clear the block....i didnt know what the "modified" mopar mini starter consisted of so i just ordered it from wilcap(new starter), but all it is is a mopar mini starter with the nose cut off..you can order the adapter without the starter , the instructions give you the starter part number and shows you how to cut the nose off...So if you want to save some money you can buy a refurbished one on ebay and do the modification for a 1/3rd of what wilcap charges you....keeping in mind wilcaps is a new starter. you can take you trans to a machine shop and have them clearance the trans case but im cheap and used a grinder with a cut off wheel so it looks like ****...this needs to be done so when the starter gear engages it wont ram into the case. in the instructions there is details on where to clearance it...... now you just screw in four studs into the adapter that are used to bolt the trans on......now your done with adapter and bolt the trans on like any other trans install.... my opinion of the wilcap adapter is that it is a quality part,and very user friendly,shipped fast,and worth the money for something that is already engineered and ready to go. and will use them again if i ever have to adapt another trans to a engine in the future. last for guys with a 54 ford after the th350(6inch tail shaft) is installed the trans mount will land right smack dab in the middle of the stock trans cross member you only need to drill two new holes and bolt it together and have a new driveline made with the chevy slip yoke.. it is a very tight fit but dont have to cut the floor hump if your not using a floor shifter and hook up a coloumn shift i used a gennie floor shifter so i cut the hump out to make install easier and for shifter mount on top of ******,i will have to raise my trans hump a little. once again sorry for the ****py pics....
since my car was originally a fordor car and the tudor was gutted i swapped everything over,dash,front and back seats,package tray,headliner bows, all fit in the new tudor.....but i then had a bench seat up front instead of the split seat that came in tudor cars.... here's the front and back seat covered by some blankets i got at a swap meet..... heres the front bench seat..... right here on the back of the bench seats on each side is a tab where there is a screw,by taking that screw out on both sides allows you to rock the top half of the seat forward to get into the backseats.... started making some temp. door panels until i can afford a interior. i still need to make the holes for the arm rests and paint the garnish mouldings that will overlap and hold the top edge of the panel... this is the gennie shifter installed it looks like its hitting the dash but is about 1/4 of a inch away, there is still more adjustment room if i want it farther back....and need to remove the three on the tree shift handle still....
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