(re) Build thread: My '58 Ford Custom

I am in the process of removing most of the changes I made to my '58 Ford Custom 300. This car was set up for AHRA stock cl*** in 1966 by a local guy and left unchanged (except for a respray) until I bought it in 1998. Over the years I changed the dash to a stock dash, added a full length exhaust system and re-installed the heater so that I could drive it regularly. Later I built a 460 and a C6 for it using Crites and Broader parts and planned to run brackets at LACR, but then LACR closed. Not much has happened with the car since.

Now I am removing the 460 and C6, putting the 352 back in, putting the original shorty exhaust system back in hooked to the fenderwell headers and having some body issues taken car of. Thinking that it would entertain and amuse the forum I decided to start a (re)build thread.

Here is how the car looked when I bought it. Note the Thunderbolt-inspired induction and the altered dash.











Later I added the Stockton Milners and M/Ts, a repro TriPower air cleaner and stock headlight buckets. I also cut out one coil

from the mid-'60s station wagon springs to lower the front about an inch so the suspension would have some upward travel.



The car now with front end removed. Did you know it's easier to pull the engine with the car like this? I've been working too hard all of these years.



Front fenders had rust in the usual place(lower rear). The right fender also had a dent below the headlight and damage from an exploding tire:





I took the fenders to Jim Tucker at JT Metal Works in Saugus. I was impressed by the metal work I saw there. I have had a bad body shop experience and generally fear them but this guy is a cl*** act and his work is right there to see. I saw some large-area rust repairs on a 356 of the sort that I see in the epic body repair threads here. Jim welded patches in to fix the small rusted areas and removed the bondo that some sculpter had crammed in there. He's working out the ripples now.





The 352 has been refreshed and is waiting to go back in. The silver valve covers are just to keep the dust out. I removed as much rust as I could from the original chrome ones while protecting the engine builder stickers and they will go back on. Maybe. Undecided. I forgot to remove the intake breather. I have an PCV valve adapter plate for the rear of the intake that replaces the road draft tube.



I need to blast the exhaust system and paint, and the header on the right needs a crack welded. The paint was VHT. Headers started to rust a few months after application. I love white headers but VHT did not work for me and pro-applied Cermacote did not work either so I give up. I'll make them silver. Headers are by "Skibstead". Anyone know who that was?



One of the gl***packs. Brand is Rocket? The lable is long gone. They were designed to be dropped prior to racing.



I'll post more as I go. There is a lot of work to do and show, and I also want to go over the 460 because it has some trick (and stealthy) parts.

 

I'll be watchin'

 

ill be watching aswell

 

I'm diggin it!

 

Me too ... dropped you a PM

 

Got it, thanks. Thanks for the comments, folks. I put up some clearer pix of some of the custom parts made for the car by Don Sauer back in 1966 later this weekend. Right now I'm nursing some road rash. I hit a patch of oil in a curve in Little Tujunga Canyon and dropped the bike. Not too much damage to man or bike but I got some owey going on.

 

Have you ever checked out the Junior Stock thread ?;

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=201085

 

Cool,,SO cool!

 

Keep us posted, I've always had a soft spot for '58 Fords - and we did not get any 2-door ones here in New Zealand (unless privately imported) and they all were powered by 272 Y-blocks with three-speed standard trans.

 

AWW! I had not seen it before! Thanks!

 

Tom, glad to see the 460 come out and the FE go back in...that car is awesome, and I have followed it on the internet since I discovered it on your site about 10 or 12 years ago...Very cool work you're having done there....

 

Body looks very solid..Your doing a nice job.. Can't wait for more update pics.......

 

Your car is awesome.

 

Interesting is like you have a time capsule back to the 1960’s long time since have seen any cars built like yours with fenderwell headers. Use to race at the old Ca tracks of Lyons, Irwindale, and Orange County. 1966 to 1970 and then again in 72 to 77 one by one they started to close the tracks here in 72. My friend use to have a 58 like that back in 1968-70 with 390 FE and 4 speed always did like it. After getting out of Army I bought a 58 Ranchero that still have, would not mind building it with that mid sixties drag look was a great time back then. Looking good!

 

Lookin' good Tom

 

Very cool, man... My first car was a '58 Ford Custom 300!
I'll keep an eye on this thread to see your progress --- I like the direction you're headed!



Malcolm

 

Well I finally got off my lazy **** and did something. I decided to drop in the engine and trans this weekend. Easy enough with the front end off, but where are my bolts?

So I spent some time digging up hardware. Then I cleaned off the bellhousing. It was polished bach in '66. Got the crud and most of the corrosion off. Looks pretty.


Here is the '66 Art Carr 2.5K stall convertor:


Since I was taking pictures I decided I might as well clean the inside of the BH. Damn HAMB making me do more work.:


I'm looking forward to figuring out how to adapt the Hurst Promatic 2 shifter cable to the Fordo.

And here is a pix of the happy couple. The jimmy hat will stay on the mill until I get the bodywork back on. Tomorrow, in it goes.

 

looking good i,m kind of fond of 58 fords

 

Do you have any pictures and parts spec’s of the rear suspension set up as it was raced?

 

The wheel center caps shown on this photo-



Are those FORD (has F-O-R-D in the black painted stripe area) or BLACK JACKS?

Absolutely beautiful car...

 

Awright. I finally pried my *** off the couch/outta the Midget/off the Intruder and got something done. Unfortunately for the sake of cool pictures, what I did was organizational.

I need space in the shed so that I can pull out parts that I need and stage them and so I can find hardware. So I moved Midget parts out and cleared space. I added a cord so I can plug my iPod into the NAD receiver driving a Bose sub and JBL bookshelf monitors. Dialed up Alabama Thunder ***** and step one was complete.

Exiting pictures of step two!
Before...



After...


Not a huge diff but every square inch of free space is helpful. The '58 is waiting...


I figure to get started removing the dash and getting the original dash stripped, painted and reinstalled. I am looking for a sandblast cabinet used. Something like the HF 40 gal unit should work. I'll have to media blast one half of the dash at a time but I'll make do. With my own blast cab I can do the inner window surrounds and the air box and then sand blast the headers. Speaking of headers, I have a question for the HAMB. One of the headers has a crack where the pipes are welded to the collector. Think there would be any problem having the crack mig welded?

 

I'm sorry Kultulz, I did not see this question until today. Those are FORD covers found at a swap meet. They are hanging on the garage wall right now.

 

I think you should have no problem welding the cracks with a mig, tig, or ox./ace. torch set. I really like that set of headers has anybody seen any sets around? Would be great to use set of fender wells on my 58 Ranchero. Do you have the measurements on them?

 

No but I could make some if someone could hip me to what needs to be measured. Anyone local could come by and check them out. They were made by some guy named Skibstead in the Sixties. No other info.

 

Yeah the measurements needed would be the tube diameter, tube length of primary, secondary as in this case they look like a Tri Y design and the collector length and diameter. Also helpful would be angels of pipes. Remember seeing how Balenger used to manufacture headers they made a nice set for the FE Fords (180 degree style) cylinder from each side crossed over under the pan to other side.

 

So I got something done this weekend. I wanted to get the electrical worked out. The car's electrical was not quite stock when I got it, and I made some changes over the years with the 352 as I added MSD and made repairs. Then I rearraged a lot of stuff for the 460 because I was running a 3G alt and had no need for the gen reg or wiring and I moved the MSD into the p***enger compartment and of course the 460 uses a starter with an integral solenoid so all of that wiring changed.

But now that the 352 and generator is going back in I had to sort out my wiring again. Fortunately I keep whatever I take off of this car so I gathered up the wiring bits and eventually I remembered what was what. But first I started bolting the front end back on.





The p***enger side fender will have to wait until I repair the dented rocker but I got enough on that I could then install the electrical. This afternoon I hooked up a battery and confirmed ignition, solenoid start trigger, charge indicator and horn. I then mounted the Mustang 24" radiator but I have a feeling I did that too soon. At least it's off the floor.



I also installed the driveshaft. I forgot that I had replaced the '58 yoke with a '73 yoke when I had the Traction-Lok installed so after figuring out why the '58 driveshaft didn't fit I pulled my '73 Torino shaft outta the rafters and bolted it in. It's been spin balanced so it's better. Then came the e-brake and the shifter linkage. The linkage is for the column shift and it's fairly tight as far as play but it's all designed to be cushioned by rubber. The shifter handle has rubber between it and the collar. The shifter rod to column joint is rubber-bushed. At the trans there is supposed to be another rubber bushing but I made a solid mount for it. It's difficult to make the 1-2 shift with a Ford-O-Matic with a column shift because you gotta go from Lo to Dr and back to Lo to hold second. Sometimes, if I am not careful, I'll go clear to neutral.

Everything included time to search for hardware which was spread out in various boxed and cans between the garage and the shop and, of course, everything required fussing and fanglage to install. Trans cooling lines went in, too. This represents the most annoying aspects of the job. What's left is some bodywork, front-end completion, cam break-in and then welding, blasting & painting the headers. Not that any of that is easy, but the little jobs sometimes take the most time, especially when there is wiring to fab and install.

 

Man I wish I had those headers for my 57 Ford 390. Car looks cool. Take care, John

 

Looking great!

 

Really diggin this thread! That car just has everything right.

 

me 3 on wanting those headers for my 57 sedan