Technical First Timer - 1955 Crown Victoria 272 / 292

Ha! Maybe poor word choice on my part. By "tear[ing] it up," I really meant giving it a good look over, after we get the car started. We want to hear it turn over. It's what will motivate us to keep at it. On the Mustang, it took us weeks before we realized why the battery kept discharging nightly; the diode on the alternator was open, and we had a parasitic draw all night long. As long the motor would start up after charging the battery daily (we had an extra battery ready to swap while the other was being charged), we kept working on other parts of the car.

That said, we can see where we will need to do metal work (rear fenders around the wheel well, part of the trunk), again nothing structural that we can tell. But, will need to do a better exam her before we chance taking it on the road.

 

To access a Social Group, you need to JOIN the group. Once you join, you will have access to that group's forum.

Click on link.

https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/social-forums/1952-59-ford-social-group.282/

Near the top is a drop down menu called 'social forum tools'. Click on 'join forum'.

It's not intuitive, but it is easy.

 

Sometimes you have to dig deeply to find issues that affect safety and reliability. We are talking about a 66-year-old car that appears not to have been on the road in years.

 

Try RockAuto for your parts look up your car they have what you need.

 

Time to replace, no?

 

I picked up a '53 lincoln HT last fall, indoors since 1962, the wiring was in really bad shape, not more than 6" of covered wire anywhere in that whole car, especially under the dash. Good news is, the dash assembly unbolts on these vintage fords, mercs, & lincolns, which makes it easy to rewire

 

Thanks. Another informative site. So much to learn.

 

Got around to taking pictures of the beast. Apologies for the poor quality. Cheap phone with poor lighting. Pictures include parts of the car with rust, rocker panels, front bumper areas (corners), distributor, valve train, solenoid, brake cylinder, generator, radiator/crossmember support, engine with water pump removed. Not sure how many I can post at once, so I will post in section. Let me know if you need more description of any picture. How would rate the state of damage?

 

Next set.

 

Yet more pics.

 

Thanks for the photos. Got a lot of work cut out for you..

 

That's a good set of photos. IMO that car will make a great example of a FORD Victoria, BUT will require a great deal of patience with the body work and interior replacement. It can all be done, "Time and money heals all!" The engine I think frankly will be pretty straight forward and is an either Or deal. All its parts are available.

I commend you on the father and son choice, I hope it goes well for you both.

I'd recommend standing back and making an overall assessment as to what you are willing to commit AND to the type of rebuild level you are shooting for.

Buy a simple replacement wiring set to use to get running, not the factory ford set as yet, Also don't try to thread it back in like it was from the factory on this set, save that for when you get to details stage, you also don't need as yet the water pump and front accessories right now. The overheads look pretty grungy, so I would expect a lot of smoke and poor oiling. But, it may still start and run. Use a soft mallet and tap on all the valves to see if they are loose and check to see if it has all its push rods in place before turning it over by hand with a breaker bar. Pull the plugs of course and give each cylinder a squirt of Acetone and ATF or something similar to get it rolling around well. Also I find it is much easier to find a known functioning carb to use to get the ball rolling. You may also want to mark the distributor placement and the rotor, then remove it. Use a drill motor driver with a long 1/4" extension and (I think I recall a 5/16th deep socket?) tape them together safely so they don't fall into the lifter valley. Use the drill to turn the oil pump counterclockwise to see if you are getting oil to the overhead. If the pump is good and the galleys aren't plugged, you will see oil forming around the rockers shafts. I doesn't have to be good oil in fact you may just want to dump in some diesel to get things moving. Of course you want to drain this and refill with some good stuff before you fire it.
Good luck and keep us informed. Always cool to see one brought back to life.

 

This is mainly about the car overall. I have a lot of suggestions about the engine. That will follow later.

This is the start. First you have to evaluate the project. I'm not being negative, just honest. If you want sell, maybe even at a loss, now is the time. Not 6 months and not a year from now when more work, money and hopes are put into it.

My opinion concerning this car is, I think a "restoration" (goodness I hate that word) is beyond you and your son. By restoration, I mean made as new. I don't think that is going to happen in the foreseeable future.

With that said...
You can have a lot of fun with this car. You can enjoy this car. You can drive this car and pretty soon too. To do this you have to have realistic expectations.

Make it roll.
Make it stop.
Make it run.
Make it go.
Make it turn.
Make it clean.
Make it comfortable.
Make it light up.
Make it shine.
^^^^
Nowhere in that was body work, painting...ect ect ect........
To get to the point.....
A realistic goal is to get the car running and driving as it is.
It's not that bad. It's really a pretty good little car. The main thing it needs is TLC, at least this go around. Maybe later..years later, you two can go further with it.
Cars are made to be driven. What makes a car special is all the people who touch it. So enjoy it.

To make that car drivable is a major project in itself. Forget about all the zippity doo dah "must haves" of internet land. Nothing is wrong with the stock 1955 platform. Don't get distracted by a bunch of stuff you do not need. Get the car driving first. If you want to do that stuff later. Fine, but now....It's just too much of mountain to climb.

Get the books...the manuals.
Tag and bag all the loose parts.
Take photos.
You and your son need to clean out and clean up that car. Get the parts out and put away. Get the loose junk out from under the seats. Sweep it out. Vacuum it out. Wipe the seats down. (I know they are crusty with padding coming out)....still wipe them down and get them clean....Windex the glass. Wash the car. Get some rubbing compound...cut and buff by hand. Get some good Carnauba Wax. Wax it and hand Buff it.
I Promise You, You and Your Son Will Be Shocked By How Good It Will Look.
This is instant gratification.

When it Looks Good.
When it smells good.
When it feels good.

You tend to feel good about it.
Clean it up! Clean her up like she is...She'll shine up for you and she'll surprise you.
This way you are working on something clean and pretty, not old and nasty. It's a mental thing.

 

Thanks for the comments. Yes, it is a good father-son project, particularly as I am older than most of his friends parents. Great bonding time learning. Really brought us closer together when we picked up the Mustang and got that running. Spent a good amount of time at the junk yard picking through other foxbody vehicles to get replacement parts. Best part is the focus has always been on the engine and transmission, less on the “looks.” He likes his sleeper.
As for the car, with the exception of one body molding and hood ornament, we have all the parts for the car, and a few extras. Sure, there is body work and interior work, but don’t see to much structural that needs to be addressed. As for the engine, it turns fairly easily by hand and the rockers arms seem to go up and down consistently and evenly. True, we haven’t attempted to crank her over, but that’s because I told my son we need to do a bit more research and a bit more assessing, particularly on lubrication and fuel delivery.
In the end, it’s time spent with the young’un. And the disagreements will really be about our respective learning styles and knowledge acquired from the experts. Thanks for the sage advice.

 

Yep, goal one is to get her started. Goal two, clean her. Goal three, take her around the block.

We agree. Cars are made to be on the road. When we picked her up, it was just to tackle another project car. No intention of selling her. It’s the challenge that drives us. That and the need to keep from arguing over the silly things.

My son is a good guy, sharp, and always been fascinated by cars. I learned a lot from my dad about working on cars, old school. I’m learning more from my son about the technical stuff. He has me reading.

My first car was a 63 Volvo B122, picked up in the early 80s, not running and in desperate need of repairs. Told my sons about the joy of driving across the country in that thing. When my son saw the Fairlane, he asked me if I would willing to help him get it running. Nothing else. He asked if I thought we could. I said it was worth the try. If not, the time spent together was worth the cost.

We will try to keep folks posted, and if you all don’t mind, we will likely be asking a whole mess of questions. Not likely to be able to restore her anytime soon, but do hope to get her out the garage by summers end.

Again, thanks.

 

This car has its challenges, but nothing that can't be overcome with blood, sweat, tears and $$$. Unlike a lot of others on here, I can see HUGE value in this F%#d (us GM guys just can't say the "F" word)...the time you get to spend with your son! That's worth more than ANY car, and can't be bought for ANY price. Go for it! If it NEVER hits the road, it's still worth it in my book. Enjoy...

 

Definitely a later engine, good to see it already has the later dizzy (not the load-o-matic). Plug wires should be easy, I buy standard "cut to fit" 7mm wires with straight boots on one end and 90* on the other. You can get the wiring loom/holders from Dennis Carpenter or LMC truck. Done right they look very tidy.

 

That’s ok we call yours Scrubbys over on F%#d pages….

 

Nice. Must be going in a pickup..

 

Thanks for the confirmation on the distributor. We have the wire looms/brackets, which we can clean up an reuse and we will pick up a set of generic 7mm wires.

In a earlier post, y'sguy wrote here, “Also I find it is much easier to find a known functioning carb to use to get the ball rolling. You may also want to mark the distributor placement and the rotor, then remove it. ”
Any recommendation on an inexpensive carb to use with this engine/distributor? We will try the 2 bbl carb we have right now, but if it doesn't work, which inexpensive rebuilt one should we consider?

 

Thanks for the recommendation Gils Garage. Here's a picture of the coil with the 12V on it.

 

What I meant was a used carb that you know to be in working condition.
Many folks rebuild an existing carb then bolt it on and have new sets of problems.
As far as a new carb, I am a little confused as to what you have. In one photo it show a 4 barrel manifold/ no carb and another a 2-barrel manifold with carb. Which one is it?

 

Apologies for the confusion. The first picture has an intake for a 4 bbl carb but no carb. We found in the trunk another 2 bbl intake with a 2 bbl carb. Decided to replace the first intake with the 2 bbl one because there was a carb attached. No idea if there is an issue with the carb. Hoping it works at least just enough to hear the engine run. In the event it doesn’t, just looking for suggestions on what carb/model to use in the meanwhile.

 

If you need to replace that carb I believe you can get a direct replacement. But, it's worth trying to get it to fire on that one. Just use an auxillary small gas tank tho. not the car's. Fuel thru that system can't be good. Also if you elevate the fuel supply above the level of the carb you won't be using a potentially bad fuel pump.

 

This thread is about getting a '56 T'bird Y block running. This page has 4 barrel carb opinions. Owner chose the Edelbrock, but several recommended a unit from Summit that works well right out the box.
https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum...y-buy-and-get-most-of-way-home.1229635/page-7

 

Having a bit of difficulty getting spark to distributor. Replaced the + and - cables to the battery (fully charged). New cable to the starter. Checked the continuity to the coil. Checked the resistance of the primary and secondary windings on the coil. But, can’t seem to get a spark to the distributor. Must be overlooking something simple, right?

 

Replace the coil, points and condencer(s)

 

Maybe @Hamtown Al has an idea for 55 Ford Y block:

 

Thx. We got her to turn over today, with the junky 2 bbl carburetor we had on hand. Talked it over with my son, and after reading a few of the threads on this site we decided we will be going with the 4 bbl intake. Now, we have to search for a reasonably priced 4 bbl carburetor.

And, repair/replace the radiator, water pump, change the oil, check out the tranny, clean/replace the gas tank,….

Yep, a good way to go still, but progress feels great.