I'm building a "refined" rat rod/mild custom, and am wondering what issues I may encounter. New running gear is out of a '70 Mustang. The Edsel frame is same as '58 Merc. Anyone know what motor mounts would work best? I also want to swap original "TeleTouch" column for a Fomoco column to get the shift lever - any suggestions? The goal is to keep the car 100% Fomoco, and traditional with no billet or aftermarket bling parts. Thank you !!
Small block Ford mounts are easy to fab, 2 bolts on the block ..... Truck mounts have 1 stud out the bottom and might be a good place to start , then you just make a place off your frame to land them
The RR word again.. 2nd one today... gasp... and a FNG with no intro... place is going to poopie.... Lots of same-year Ford parts swap right in and I see steering columns on evilBay all the time.
"FNG"??? My car is not going to be a "RR" in appearance. Will be smoothed, lowered, on moon's and painted steelies, with a full interior that doesn't resemble a barnyard. Exterior will be tinted primer with a painted roof/quarter panel inserts. Not a surprise, but the market sources are VERY limited when it comes to columns to fit this car due to overall length, mount configuration, and starting box shaft size. This me for your reply and you suggestion. Good luck with your projects.
I dropped a '78 Lincoln 400/C6 I to my '56 Merc several years ago and used combined 400 and factory '56 lowers. The engine dropped right in, sat right, with minor clearancing of the driver side exhaust fold for upper A-frame clearance. Thank youfor the reply and suggestion.
57-59 Merc steering collums did not have a gear selector mechanism for the automatic trans. The automatic selector was "push button" and mounted on the left side of the dash. The 60 Mercs had a collum shift selector but I"m not sure of how that would fit on your 58. I have a standard shift 57 Merc collum if interested. Oldmics
FNG is basic designation when you are new out of the box here and you were the one who called it a "rat Rod", not us. We don't do rat rods here, and don't drink with the girls who do. you are on the right track upgrading that old heap and ford truck mounts will probably be your best bet. You will have to fab some pieces but that what building is all about.
It would be really cool if you could keep the pushbutton drive. Wonder how hard it would be to rig something up or if someone makes an electric gearshifter. Do you have the old trans or electric shifter?
Yes, am aware of the Merc pushbutton selectors. My car has the complete TeleTouch, but I want it to be more reliable by dumping he buttons. Have thought about the '60 Merc column becuz it has a dual range quadrant, so it might work with the FMX's "P-R-N-D-2-1" pattern.
Loosing the tele-touch is a wise decision, two things killed the Edsel, the price was one, but they could have survived the price because the styling was excellent. The tele-touch was the other and not being reliable is one thing that no new car could survive back then.
The TeleTouch was definitely a weak spot. Have a stock '58 Citation with a perfectly operating TeleTouch, but that took all new relays and a former Edsel mechanic to get it right. For the Corsair, I want modern power and hassle free driving.
I totally agree with this idea. If you could retain the push button part of it but update the shift motor mechanism to something modern and dependable. It really is what makes an Edsel such an anomaly. I had a 58 Villager with the teletouch trans and had the shift motor rebuilt. It worked pretty well when the temps were cooler but on a hot summer day it would act up.
The TeleTouch in my Citation always draws a crowd, and works fine. I have thefactory heat shield on it, and we routed all motor wires in looms away from exhaust and trans case. Am going to get the TeleTouch from the Corsair rebuilt and get new relays to keep as spares for the Citation. As for the Corsair, I want to twist the key, grab the shift lever, pull it into Drive, and go. Tho k the 351/FMX will move it down the road just fine, but I do enjoy punching the E475 in the Citation, though.
A few things killed the Edsel, the '58 grille was not well received, problems associated with the tele-touch and it came along at the wrong time, the 1957-1958 recession. Also competed with the Ford and Mercury lines at the time. Ford in general was plagued with quality issues across all their product lines.
The Jalopy Journal
