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

No pic, so I can't tell if you are too short or too long.
They should stick out far enough that you are able to fill the tires easily with wheel covers. Anyone who has short stems that has had to remove the covers to check tire pressure will agree that long = good.

 

The basic, generic alignment specs for a Short Long Arm (SLA) front suspension is as follows from my foggy memory.
Camber this will be close to straight up and down, with a slight inward bias. Say a degree or 2.
Caster is normally 3-7 degrees. Less for manual steering, more for power. More helps the wheel return to straight ahead but is harder to turn. Also, there is usually a degree difference side to side to counter the road crown.
https://www.carparts.com/blog/what-is-caster-positive-caster-negative-caster-explained
Toe is normally 1/8 inch toe in for the street. This compresses all the play in the rear steer parts to close to zero when moving forward, and tracks in a straight line well.


Going to the link before, the site has a basic description of alignment.
https://www.carparts.com/blog/a-short-course-on-wheel-alignment/
Note that at one point, it mentions a shopping cart wheel. That is total junk. I edited a textbook that also had this in it and told the publisher it was rubbish. A cart wheel does not have another wheel and a tie rod between them. It will behave differently. I also hate that many places that show this stuff will keep switching Front pointing left and right. Maybe it's to get someone to understand that each side is different, but it's like using lefty-loosey and then showing you reaching around and removing a bolt facing the opposite way.

 

I will mention that a good alignment shop is not the one advertising in the local coupon book. Instead, look for the shop that does body shop work, local racers and high performance cars.
Most cars these days are strut, which usually means "set toe and ship it or sell parts to fix". You have something that has much more adjustment and takes longer.

 

got the car out of the garage, as per what my dad needed. got the undercarriage stuff done. i'll read up on all your posts this evening, but i think i'll need to wait a few months to get it aligned.

the motor mounts made it take off SO MUCH BETTER. it never bucked, not even once. smooth and even, the clutch no longer fights me when revving either.

this car is going to be a wonder to drive... so long as i centered that leaf spring right, i think i got it.

 

they are suuuper short, those are random adapters from the 80s my dad had for his cadillac when they did the same thing to his rims. i found out they leak bad

 

Look at your shim stacks. If they are about equal in thickness, you are in the ball park. The manual for my car says the max is 5/8" per stack. If you go with 1/2", it is easier to take shims out than to put them in.

 

they are about even, id say closer to 9/16 than half. the generator noise is gone but my exhaust leak is worse, i need to wait until april 12th to get it fixed as the local exhaust guy i SHOULD have gone to the first time is booked until then. i put some tape over the hole in the a pillar, to do the windshield i probably need to wait until spring or summer so the rubber is more pliable. i also need to buy all new trim clips and just replace them all

 

If it's like most 50s cars, there will be some metal repair to be done when the windshield comes out too.
The clips are probably held in with small Phillips head screws. Expect those to be trash.

Let your dad know that a bunch of keyboard warriors appreciate him giving up garage space in the winter to allow you to get further along on this project!

 

his poor monte had to sit outside because my brother wouldnt move his free car out of the other garage, luckily the seals are in good shape.

i dont think i would have been able to get this done this winter outside.

 

The windshield trim clips are likely not available as new. I had them all except for the top row, which are 2 different types. I paid something like $50 to get them with another top trim piece.

 

I find that truck shops can tackle anything. When I was doing them, I did everything except for oval track cars. The toe-out would push the tables on the rack outward.

 

luckily all of mine are intact, i can make some out of sheet steel

 

I made CAD files from the ones I bought on eBay and printed out drawings... only good if I can find where I put the thumb drive and hard copies.

 

reason its been nearly a week since ive posted moving it... my daily beater went and broke an essential part, no time for hot rods when im borrowing cars from my dad.

my crown vic busted its watts link, so been trying to fix that mess.

i think sometime this spring i'll patch up some of the floors when i do weatherstripping. i also need to patch the door bottoms, and rear quarters, and roof, and a pillar, and lots of other things

itll be fun.

 

been a mess, but i almost have a daily now, just need to throw all the parts together.

 

I had no idea those newer Crown Vics had a watts link.

 

yup, 97 got a watts and 03 got r&p with coil over suspension

 

daily is nearly finished, had some problems with some parts not showing up.



checked her fluids, tires, then woke her up. the brakes are a bit too tight i believe, pedal feels a little weak.
car drives SO MUCH BETTER with the new suspension parts. the camber and caster angle is actually consistent now and doesnt wander around.

i cant believe i took this car 85mph with the suspension in that condition

 

Very cool indeed. I had mine out 2 weeks ago and put a fresh battery in it.

 

Now you need to show those Vairs some love. Or sell them to me.

 

I have no memory so I don't know if I posted this or not. That car is very similar to my 1st car in the 1960's. Same color. Mine came with a 312 and auto. The engine was locked up and I went through a couple of cheap engines before buying a 272 that was good. I installed the 312 intake and carb and the exhaust manifolds on it. What little I remember about the car other than it wasn't fast was that it had a wonderful heater. That was back when nothing was cool about 4 door anythings, hardtop or sedans.

 

i believe youve been here before, it sounds familiar... always good to hear it again.

my car is by no means fast or a hot rod, its a budget beater at best haha. i eeked a 10 second 0-60 out on a slight downhill once. car is a wonder to drive.

 

You wonder how it drives? Quite well it sounds like.

 

er, wonderful thing to drive haha

 

the brakes were in fact, too loose.

like, i must have adjusted them all the way in instead of out... whoops.

the voltage regulator completely failed, i heard a pop and it let the smoke out... got lucky none of the wires melted.

 

well, its been a while but the car is finally back driving. its making 13.7 at idle and 14.3 at 15000 rpm with a cutoff at 14.5. i did my research and found a new voltage regulator off summit that is supposedly made in usa. after doing some testing i marked it "reliable enuff" and loaded up my mom, dad, and sister. then drove on down to the ice cream festival.


my mom and sister werent pleased hahaha. she wanted to take her nice, quiet, air conditioned, radio equipped ford flex.

 

after that i took the car out and got some real gas for it.

rec 90, costs a bit more but its better for the car.


hit a new milestone.
600 miles since drivable.


this engine bay gets so hot in summer, but my temp gauge never even goes over halfway. using an infrared thermometer it shows 182 degrees while running, car has a 180 degree thermostat, i think if it wasnt for the thermostat it would run too cold.

 

Car's looking awesome man. Glad to see you out there with it.