in the early 1960's I had an all white 1955 Ford Customline, 6 cylinder standard shift. It was a great car, and fun to drive. i sold it, but I should have kept it.
I have all of the stainless to go around the back window if you need it, and my friend Harold Pilgrim can probably come up with the stainless around the windshield.
Well spent the day on the rear. First thing was flipping the shackles. Thanks for the heads up there guys. The curious child scientist in me decided to check the resulting drop before doing the blocks. As delivered Flipping the shackles back Final flipped shackles and blocks Our snow storm has turned into a "once in a generation event" according to the news and FB. It's a lot especially for TX but it's still just a normal winter storm to me. It was damn cold in the garage today though lol. Skin must be getting thin already. While I was out there I checked out the front crossmember, and... It's not great. Had previously looked but was looking at the one that sits under the engine which looked great. So I'll be looking for one if those or making one depending on cost. Where should I look first? -Adam Sent from my rotary phone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Yessir. So what does everyone else do to get the wheels back on when it's lowered like this. I had to u bolt the bottom of the shock to let the axle flex a little more which ended up just being able to sneak the wheel in. Just wo dered if there were other ways to do it. -Adam Sent from my rotary phone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Lotsa places to get info on your find. Here on the HAMB under social groups the 52-59 Fords. YBlocksforever.com and the Crown Victoria owners (you don’t need to own one) is great with a monthly magazine. You live near one of or possibly the best Y-blocks masters in the country, Ted Eaton. He is in Leona near Waco. Sound like you have a great Ford to start and have fun with. Good luck.
I’d talk to @TexasSpeed about cords member plans. Yeah it’s hard getting a tire in there. Not un common to pull the shock or deflate the tire before cramming it in there
I usually let the rear hang as low as possible with everything still attached and maybe let the air out of the tires if needed. My 670 15’s go on without flattening them, but the 205/75/15’s that were on it wouldn’t.
The crossmember in my 55 wagon did not have a drain hole. Got one out of the junk yard off a 56 and it had a fairly large drain hole.
It's a weber 32/36. Actually had the same carb on my old 63 Falcon with a 170ci that I got from the now defunct classicinlines.com ran great in that car. -Adam Sent from my rotary phone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Does it still have the stock load-o-matic distributor? Or did the PO swap in something else? The load-o-matics need to be paired with a carb that has a spark control valve. Might be why you have no power if the stock distributor is paired with a Weber carb.
Now that you mention that I remember having to do that in that falcon. This one looks stock. Would be a great place to start to make it more enjoyable in the now -Adam Sent from my rotary phone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
So what are my options for a distributor for this that doesn't need the spark control carburator? Do I have to go with the giant cap HEI unit. Or are there other options. With the 170 in my falcon I remember I had to have the distributor machines so it fit the lower bushing better. And on then needed to drop the pan and change the oil pump to a 5/16 drive that the new distributor used. It was a while ordeal (don't ask why I couldn't remember that I needed to change it. But somehow can remember everything I had to do in order to change it) So in other news it got cold here in TX this week. You might have heard about it lol. It was a while ordeal. Fairly normal temps for us but that doesn't mean I like it.... And TX is flat out bit equipped to handle the 4-5" we got and multiple days in si gke digits. Fortunately we haven't had any busted pipes or anything like that but our "furnace" struggled to keep up. The city went in a boil order and we had really low water pressure for a bit. But compared to others who had to deal with electrical blackouts, no water at all, busted pipes flooding their houses, not to mention the really nasty wreck the day before the temps went cold. We've been pretty fortunate this week. With the cold temps I stayed I side I stead of replacing the front sori ga after doing the rear. Went out and knocked that out this morning. I ky to find that it already had aerostar springs and the shocks I bought weren't right so I had to reuse what was in there. I did go ahead and put my new springs in figured if I already had it torn apart I might as well. Also the more I look at that crossmember the worse it looks. So that will be the next item on the list. Going to see if I can get the pieces cut out locally without spending a fortune. If I can't I'll just go the grinder with a death wheel route. Got the blue prints off the social group on here for these cars. -Adam Sent from my rotary phone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
A 300-6 distributor is s pretty easy upgrade. I think it was just a matter of reaming out the drive gear. Its been a while since I've done it.
You've got a great looking car. I like the plan of keeping it mild. These cars are sharp to begin with, so you don't need to get too crazy to have a killer looking custom. Just a minor cleaning up is really all that's necessary. Hitting the basics of nosing, decking, shaving, and lowering go a long way. Since you need to get the car resprayed, it makes it all the easier to weld the holes up and just spot prime it until you can get the car reshot. You can get pretty aggressive lowing these. As others have correct said, the flipped shackle is the way to go, in conjunction with a 2"-3" lowering block. I cut 2 full coils in the front of mine, though that certainly affected the ride and while it looks awesome, you may not want to go that far. In terms of a distributor, why not just put a Pertronix in it? I know everybody talks about how points are fine but I noticed a huge improvement in cold starting and idle stability when I switched from points to a Pertronix. Not to mention they're technically easier to buy at the store than points. Any Pep Boys, Advanced, Auto Zone. etc., is going to have an ignitor in stock. If you ask for points they're going to look at you like you have 3 heads.
I agree with Joe, I've run Pertronix in a couple of cars and have had very good luck. Quicker starting and smooth running, I plan on putting one in my '56. The only problem I've found is with the original Pertronix is if you left the ignition on without it running it could burn out the module. Igniter II and III don't have that problem.
All for using pertronix. For some reason though there was still an issues with the distributor itself being load o matic and not having that spark control reference from the carb. If that's not the case then that would be one of the best options as far as cheap and easy. I was playing around this weekend gave it a bath and lost some of the funpy fur in the back window was going to pull the I terior panels to clean and grease the window regulators but I can't get the stupid handles off. I've got the spring clip tool but it doesn't seem to have any clips in it to remove. I e tried the tool, an assortment of pics etc. With no luck.... Kinda frustrating any tips or tricks? -Adam Sent from my rotary phone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Update apparently all it took was breaking down and asking the question. Clips on the door handle and window popped out right after I hit send. Apparently the special tool I have isn't wide enough for the fords. The door handle just happened to pop off and once I saw the back side I was able to use the picks more effectively to get the window crank. -Adam Sent from my rotary phone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Neat car, I'll be following along. I hear Ford Aerostar springs are the hot setup on those to drop them in the front. Side note- we lost power for 2 days, when it came back on a pipe burst in the attic and flooded our entire house with 1" of water. We're still living in the house, but may need to move out when restoration starts. Glad you fared OK!
Let me know if I can help in any way man. Our house ain't that big it is offer you a place here but any thing else I can do let me know. Funny thing about the aerostar coils. I pulled the stock ones out to out aeros in ..... And my stocks weren't stock someone had already done the swap lol -Adam Sent from my rotary phone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Looks like Harry Potter waiting for a ride to a quidditch match. Great car! Texas snow, used to live there and never saw any.
Well found a deal on FB for an unstuck y block and auto trans in San Antonio. The girls just happened to have the day off school on Friday as did my wife who works at their school. I'm still working remote with all the covid crap so we loaded up and made a weekend out of San Antonio while also picking up the engine. It obviously hasn't run in a long time. Since the 6 is still running ok ish I'll work on cleaning this thing up and getting it running, cleaned up, etc. And then swap it out when I know I have everything I need With that in mind, after getting back home last night and getting the kids to bed I spent some time in the garage cleaning off the years of caked on oil, grease, dirt, gravel etc. Pulled the valve covers and though they need a good cleaning everything looked good, until I opened the other side and found 6 pushrods instead of 8 on the passenger side bank. Not sure yet what that's about as there are no obvious signs of something being bent or broken by force inside the valve train. I'm tempted to just buy a set of pushrods and try to start it. Though I should probably investigate further and see if I find anything else -Adam Sent from my rotary phone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
When I tore down the Y block in my 57 it was missing 2 pushrods, too. One was laying in the valley and the other was wrapped completely around the crank. Did you try to move the engine at all? I wouldn't do a damn thing until the engine is on a stand, oil pan off, intake a valley cover off, and you can verify that everything moves as it should.
That’s relatively clean inside and a non loadmatic distributor. Handle with care as originals seem to be harder to get...The 58-64 Autolite 2 barrel engines are good performers stock. Good luck.
As much as I want to just grab a battery and see what happens, I probably would be an idiot not to dig further -Adam Sent from my rotary phone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
You said it's unstuck, will it turn over a full revolution? If it's on the stand and out of the car, it's probably worth pulling the heads. Do you know what CID it is? Hopefully a 292. That's a good little Y if so.
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