Projects Picked up a neat 1953 Ford convertible old mild custom yesterday

That was an old time trick to put a rake on a car easily and at $0 cost, guys would even do it on their parents car when they borrowed it for the evening and flip them back before taking it home. The parents were none the wiser!

 

Been there and done that.. looking good, it is always good to establish drive-ability sooner than later.

 

Well that did it...popped the shackles up and it sits just how I want it

 

Ta-dah!
Another Brodie no-charge fix s***ified customer!

 

wow that looks great Chris
B

 

What a nice cruiser.....

 

well done Chris, sits even better than before...

 

What a cool car! Love that color and the changes you've made so far are just great!

FWIW, it looks like they shortened that horizontal molding on the quarter panel...

 

Looking killer Chris. That green glows! Those caps are awesome.

 

Yes, thanks for pointing that out haha

 

Interesting, you may be right? I bought a 53 Vicky that has a lot of NOS parts and decent trim. I'm going to take what I need and sell off the rest

 

Did you sell that sedan whole, or is it going to be parted out?

 

Sold it whole

 

Did you get the rear brakes figured out?

 

I have not had time to look at it...I hope to get it figured out and officially have a driver this weekend

 

I also bought a 53 Vicky for parts...it has a lot of spare and NORS parts. I'm
Gonna take what I need and move the rest

 

Thanks Chris.

 

I went and picked up my Vicky parts car tonight, I was really excited to dig through all the parts! NOS tail light housings, crest trim, tail light lenses and stars, u joint, turn signal housings, even a cigarette lighter! NORS includes a ton of parts to rebuild the front end. Got a couple spare radios, a spare grill incase I want to swap to an original, recored radiator, even a set of NOS hubcaps! The car itself is actually pretty nice. Has typical quarter panel and rocker rot, but hopefully a project someone will want. I really like the black/white with green interior.

 

Fiddled with the wiring last night...it's been reworked and cut and spliced. Certain things did not work, so I started at one end and with the exception of the turn signals (all that wiring ended up coming out), most everything works. I will probably order a complete new harness for it, but this will get it on the road for a while

 

Also found this lil guy in the rocker while running wires

 

Car is looking good!

I found a pair of live ones under the back seat of a '57 Desoto. Before the comments roll in, those are my sister's hands.

 

Chris, the convert was my favorite car in high school but I could not find one I could afford that my dad would let me buy. They are great cars for "People like Us!"

 

I had to pull the seat out and a rear panel to access the wiring. While that was out I figured I should clean and get the rear windows working (rollers broke). Did that and put the top up...I have a loose appointment to have a top put in this winter. I was amazed how rust-free this car is in the floors

 

really a great car...that's a keeper

 

Your current roof is what I like to call "a poor umbrella", for emergency use only.
keep the updates coming, great car.

 

@1959Nomad yes except the only thing holding the top on is the header...I drove it down the street and the top starting whipping and cracking like a whip!!

 

Congrats on another find. I'm always amazed at the the integrity of the cars, bodies etc in your area. I have seen 2007 pickups around here with rust above the wheelwells!

 

LOL, let's hope you have some sunny days until it gets repaced.

 

I think I figured out my rear brake locking issue...I pulled the drum off last night and noticed that the shoes would not go in as far as they should...neither side was up against the anchor pin. I fiddled around with them seeing if anything was binding or hanging up, and without any problem I could see I pulled the shoes off. Looked eveything over and eveything looked fine, so I re-installed everything, bolted the wheel back on, hit the brakes and the pedal went to the floor. Fluid coming from that wheel. So off comes the drum again and I see the front side of the wheel cylinder blew the dust cover off. I pulled everything back off, and found the cup behind the piston had turned crooked in there.



So I think what happened was the wheel cylinder was messed up the whole time, and would not allow the brakes to seat all the way down like they are supposed to. Me fooling with the brakes probably caused the wheel cylinder to blow. At least thats what I am guessing happened. Have to pick up a set of rear shoes now, but I think it should solve the problem.





Oh, and yes I was the one that out the cylinders together. I always take them apart to inspect them and make sure they were together correctly