Hi all. Been lurking for a bit, checking in every once in awhile when things slow down at work, figured it was about time to introduce myself and post a couple pictures. Live in San Diego area, been here since the mid 80's. I do a lot of vintage car wiring as a side project, helps pay for my habit. We've been through a ton of cars over the years, but I think we've settled down a bit. We'll see...... This latest project is a 55 Customline that we traded a 29 A pickup for. She came with an 88 Lincoln 302, but was stock everywhere else. Now she's got an AOD, front discs, new AeroStar springs uncut, power rack and pinion, radiator/fan/ trans cooling lines, new wiring (way over-killed Thanks to Tony Candela for supplies.), 5.0 shorty headers with the long Smithy's going all the way out the back, Wheel Vintiques with whitewall radials, remote trunk release, new tank and lines, tilt column. The goal is to make her a daily driver. Once we get up and running, will start doing interior a little at a time. Floorboards need attention, but they're not horrible. Added some pictures to an album, but haven't figured out how to add them to a post yet.
Welcome from just north of you. Nice looking 55. Good luck with it. Here's a link to posting pics. http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/...discussionid=18102&gmid=327154#gmessage327154
Good looking car. I've been debating going to a rack and pinion. Can you give me some more info on what you used and how happy you are with it?
The jury is still out. I'm still in the process so to speak. I tracked down Rick Wurth and used one of his kits. He installed it, I drove it home, and now I'm redoing a couple of things. I will say, however, that it drove fantastic on the highway. My old steering had the same slop it sounds like you're describing. There was absolutely none on the drive back down. What I didn't like is the u-joint angle coming off the bottom of the steering column, so I went from a single u-joint to a double. I added an intermediate support on the DD and its way more solid. I'm converting to a tilt with key in column, so also needed to space the column down a little so the ignition switch linkage would not bind as it crossed the column to dash support. When I got off the highway, the pump acted like it wasn't power at all, and then after about 30 seconds, was fine. Did that to me twice when we were driving it around before I decided to put on jackstands to work on cooling and wiring. We'll see once she's on the road again if still happening. Overall, I like it, just a couple bugs to work out. Hopefully.
I've been on the Wurth it site many times and there are no prices listed. What do they get for the rack and pinion for the 56's? Keep us posted on how yours works out. Just noticed, they have your car on their website. http://www.wurthitdesigns.com/
That's funny, I didn't know he had the car on there. I should send him a better picture. Oh well, Rick's a nice guy if you get him in person, and seems to go out of his way to accommodate all the little quirks and oddball issues my car had. I've got about $1,430 into the install which included swapping out my supplied column, my supplied exhaust manifolds, he supplied and installed the R/P kit, KYB's, a new set of Aerostar springs, had it aligned and gave me a print out. Rick drove it over the the exhaust shop while it was up there and for $550 I had a new system with Smithy's installed. He had kits on the workbenches for different cars he was shipping out, I'm not sure what he was getting just for them. Might be a little high, but I was going out of town for a couple weeks, the opportunity to get the car in happened and I jumped on it. But like I said, there are a couple tweaks I'm doing.
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