Technical A Kid's First Project: 1957 Fairlane 500 Town Victoria.

You can but it is going into the shop and they will check it there anyhow. But if you want to hear the engine run that would be juuuust fine.

 

i realized that my oil bath cleaner was chosen because of where he worked, he worked at the Lincoln mill in Alabama, before it closed, if you squint, you can almost see the car parked in the parking lot in this pic.

 

changed the title to better fit how the thread is going.

 

it sat with one tire that held air, but the owner had wood blocks under the axles in an attempt to even it out, before they moved it to where it was in the first picture (had been there for a few weeks)

 

On the topic of fixing that radiator, looks pretty fixable to me. We soldered up a similar area on my son’s Edsel radiator recently (probably 5k miles ago) and it is holding fine so far.

 

Im not a big fan of skirts, i think they interupt the body line too much. For now im just trying to get it on the road, then i can see about modifications. I also want to keep it a y block, since its currently on the original motor and such.

 

You have a ton of work ahead just in the stock form. Big ticket items are the drive train, brakes and electrical. Sort out the obvious front end gremlins as you go.

My car, I put it on 4 jack stands for close to 2 months dismantling the brakes (front disc conversion), front end, cleaning and painting 1/2 of the chassis.

 

Would the license plate light being out cause the tail lights to not work?

 

Very unlikely. They're both fed with the same wire from the switch, you either have damaged wires, a blown fuse or possibly a bad switch. The taillight fuse is located on the switch; you'll find two fuses, the larger one is the taillights, the smaller one is dash lights. If your dash lights work, it's probably a damaged wire to the rear of the car. The way these are wired is the taillight fuse covers both tail and dash lights, the smaller dash light fuse is only there to prevent a dash light failure from taking out the taillight fuse. If the taillight fuse blows neither will work, this is to let you know there may be a problem with the taillights when the dash lights go out.

 

My dash lights are good, but the rheostat is broken.

 

Old HL switches, my opinion, replace them. I got the one for my car from Kwik Wire, along with the new harness, no fuses on the switch. OG style switches with the fuses are available. These cars have the funky fuses in the switch and elsewhere since they have no fuse panel.

Other things I replace on old cars immediately are the water pump, fuel pump, starter and alternator or generator/regulator. And the master cylinder (also inspect/replace wheel cylinders).

 

Im planning on rebuilding rather than replacing. my starter is good still, just needs lubricated. I will replace the fuel pump, and rebuild a factory one in the future, as mine was replaced. generator will also be rebuilt. I am hoping to get an original style switch. its getting a full brake job, all new everything other than the master (which is a lot easier to just rebuild.

speaking of master cylinder, how on earth do you remove it? i try to unbolt it, to no avail, the bolts spin, but dont loosen.

 

Taking the bolts out will require two people. One on the inside with a pair of vice grips to hold the nut that has broken its cage. One of mine did this and that is what I had to do. Now to try and get it back in. The nice thing about these cars is things CAN be rebuilt. I had my fuel pump, gen, starter all rebuilt. The water pump I replaced but will get it rebuilt at some point as well. Going to work the carb over this weekend.

mike

 

im so close to getting her running, i need to lubricate the cylinders, set the points (i still have no idea how to do this), and set the valve lash for the new pushrods.

 

All of that is quite simple. Tim McMaster has a few videos on you tube about that stuff. Keep going you will get there.

 

i cant tell if someone has painted this in the past, if the red is bondo (its magnetic to cheap fridge magnets), or if its factory primer, its a proper "patina" look, other than the floors, trunk, and rear quarter, i dont think im going to paint much. as i kind of like the beat up look, makes it so people wont mess with it too..

 

just leave it as is, get it running nice and start drving it ASAP. That back corner might have have been a dent that got badly fixed.

 

That is either rust or red primer-as mine has that, actually both of those as well.

Mike

 

started process of dropping the gas tank, the tank is dead dry inside, and smooth. very odd, i expected chunky rust.

 

Consider yourself extremely lucky.

 

the tank is still getting replaced, as its smashed in on the bottom.

 

i have the rocker shafts torqued to 15 foot lbs, but i dont know if that is correct and i cannot find it in the manual, does anyone know the exact spec?

 

i also took some time to clean the oil bath air cleaner, it seems this oil hasn't been changed in a long while, black as dirt, tons of bugs, but it cleaned up well.

 

I'm a sucker for '57 Fords, always was and always will be. Now that that's out of the way, I'll share my lowly opinion. Having owned many '57's and some with FE mills, I will say this. The FE swap is so simple, that if park your '57 in the garage, with a little heat, and set a nice FE of any kind next to it, turn the lights off, and close the doors, by morning the FE Gods will have gently installed it in the '57. That's how easy it is. With the proper bellhousing your 3-speed will stay right where it is. You will notice that the Gods used the FE motor mounts, just turned them backwards, and it moves the mill forward the proper distance. Now, it's been a few years (decades) since I did this, but I was a dumbass kid, so it must have been easy... The nice thing is that FE mills are plentiful, and easy to work on. Parts are easy to get, as nearly every Ford Truck, from the 330 series to the 360 and 390 were all but the same, and cars are the same, from the 332 to the 427 and 428's. Y-blocks, not so much, even though I love them also.

 

this currently has the original motor and i plan on keeping it, i am wanting to hot rod a 4 door hardtop or 2 door post in the future, 4 speed, 428 pi, 3.56s etc.

 

I understand completely... If the Y-block runs okay, I would stick with it too...

 

fuel tank was not empty

 

also according to the owner... he only put leaded into it. so this is leaded varnish...

 

Well, it depends on where you look. Y-block rocker shaft-to-head 12 to 15 ft-lbs by my '56 manual, but my '60 manual calls out 45-50 ft-lbs so take your choice.....

 

i will go for the "in between" at 30 then. a little more torque shouldn't hurt, right?