Projects 1958 Ford Ranch Wagon "Class Project"

Great idea and nice work to all!

What happened to that cherry ford truck that donated the 390?? looked like a good truck?

Wagons rock!!

 

Your doing a great thing.......my hats off to ya !

 

Well done. Keep us updated.

 

You deserve a medal for what you're doing! Look forward to seeing you guys progress with this project.

 

Hey guys keep up the good work. Here is mine. UGOTPK

 

i used a straightened coat hanger on a drill once to clear the pick-up on a fuel tank. good job so far please keep us posted.

 

awesome, it inspires me to try to push for a auto shop at my school.

 

The Kids are doing a great job,,reminds me of all the same things I had to deal with when building our '54 Ranch Wagon. HRP

 

looking good. sure beats them out in the parking lot working on hondas lol

 

April 18th was our 16th class session. Just Derek and Dylan this week as Jake was off playing basketball.

In the weeks between classes, Dave got busy on the roof and it's now 99.9% bare metal.



The car is now licensed and insured, so the only thing keeping us from driving to the exhaust shop is brake lights.

I had Derek and Dave work on the lights. Everything is pretty dirty and crusty, so they cleaned up the sockets and chrome as well as the whole tail gate area. The innards of one of the sockets was completely deteriorated, so Derek fabricated a new one from materials found in the recycle bin. We also had to replace some of the wiring back there that was brittle and frayed. Jake usually does our electrical work, so it was good to get Derek some experience wiring.



I found the original hub caps for the car that we had taken out of the back a year and a half ago when we first brought it into the garage. They were pretty cruddy, but restorable. I set them out on the bench before class and I was going to use them as "punishment" for anyone who couldn't stay focussed or who got bored. To my surprise, Dylan wanted to clean them up and jumped right on the project when class started. It took pretty much the whole class, but we now have nice, shiny hub caps.



Now I wish we had painted the wheels some color so we had more contrast between the chrome and the wheel color (I was pushing for lime green).

It was a quiet class, and I can't say that we got a whole lot further toward our goals, but it was nice to have each of the boys focus on a project and see it through. We still have some work to do to get the brake lights working. It looks like the headlight switch and the turn signal switch are part of the brake light circuit and one or both of them aren't working.

Our next big goal is to get mufflers on the car so we can take it for a cruise and take it to the body shop to get advice on how to prep the body for primer. I'm planning to take it to an exhaust shop in White Center that I've heard about, but if anyone in the Seattle area can help us fabricate a system, I'd love to do that instead.

 

Btt

 

Pretty cool, glad to some kids getting their hands dirty. Good Luck!!!

 

Very cool project. Glad to see it going on in my "backyard" (I'm near Seattle). Hope to see it at some car shows/runs this summer. You're a good man with what seems to be a great bunch of young guys, CONGRATS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Dude, you are doing an incredible thing here..Those boys won't forget it.

 

That is pretty cool, what you are doing there.

I have alot of 58 Ford stuff, let me know if there is anything you can't find. I should have some good floor pans out of a car I cut up over the summer.
You can have them if you cover shipping. I guess it depends how big they need to be. Maybe I can cover it.

You may have to replace the metal fuel line from the tank to the front.
easy way to see if its blocked is get one of those rubber tipped blow guns, shoot air in from the front and listen at the gas filler for air..or put your hand on it to see if its got pressure.
Don't stick your face near because of gas fumes coming out. Best done outside with no possible ignition sources around.

You guys are doing a great job. I cant wait to see it finished.

 

Very good work getting the kids involved. BUT I find it a bit hard to take with the body work being of the just do anything to get it running type that is teaching them bad habits from the start.

Could you possibly get another teacher with a welder and sheet metal shaping experience to lend a hand. Your doing such a good thing it would be a shame to have them carry bad habits on in life.

 

Thanks for all the kind words guys.

If anyone in the Seattle area wants to join in the fun and feel how rewarding it is to share your hobby with high schoolers, I'd love to have guest talent drop by. It would be fun to have other old cars visit as well to let the kids take a look at. We'll meet pretty much every Sunday afternoon from now until Billetproof.

If there's anyone who can help us with the body work or exhaust, that would be especially appreciated.

 

We got the fuel line figured out. It now runs off the gas in the tank (rather than a fuel can on the front bumper).

Front floor pieces would be great. I'll PM you later with some parts we need.

Thanks,

Dan

 

cool project, i love ranch wagons

 

I wish I had a class like this when I was in school...I probably would have gone more!!

 

We had our 17th class session on May 2nd with only one student. May 1st was the senior prom and two of the boys have senior "service" projects they are working on. I'm going to have to put on my teacher hat here and have a talk with some of these boys about their level of commitment to the class...

We're still working on the tail light wiring and getting the tailgate back together. Since we were low on manpower we put my 5 year old to work. I think Elliot had more energy than the rest of us combined.

Here he is shining up the chrome strips for the inside of the tailgate.


And installing them.


The tail lights all work now (after taking apart the rest of the sockets and scrubbing out the grime). This is the first early Ford I've ever worked on, so I wasn't aware of the fuse hidden on the back of the headlight switch. Once we swapped that out and fixed the light sockets, they started working. Now we have to replace the brake light switch on the master cylinder so we can be legal.

I found a local exhaust shop that will install a dual exhaust system for us on a Saturday and let the boys help. He only has a couple Saturdays available, so we need to be ready to take it in this Saturday the 8th. It looks like Dave and I will be getting together a couple evenings this week to make sure we hit that date.

Here's Derek catching up on sleep from the night before.

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Today we had a special Saturday class for our 18th session. The Muffler Shoppe in White Center opened their doors for us (they are normally closed on Saturday) and let the boys help build a dual exhaust system for the Ford.

We were in the shop for over three hours and the boys got to help out the whole time.

First we took a few minutes to checkout the underside of the car when we got it up on the rack.


Derek and Dylan were kept busy checking welds and holding pipes in place.


Here's our brand new exhaust system - the nicest thing on the car!


I owe a huge thanks to Dave at The Muffler Shoppe. Not only did he open the shop for us on a Saturday, but he did a great job of keeping the boys busy and teaching us about exhaust work.

Unfortunately, while the car was up on the rack we saw that one of the lower A-arms has some issues that we need to address before we can put any miles on this thing. We might even need a new A-arm. This is going to make Billetproof a little more difficult (since it's a good 100 miles away...).
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Why don't you PM me your list of stuff you need also. I don't have any big body parts left, but I have lots of misc little things left over from my 58...and I think I might have some wagon specific stuff I got by mistake.

 

This is an awesome thread! Glad to see someone putting their heart and soul into passing on skills that are so hard for kids these days to attain. I guarantee those boys will never forget what you have taught them.

 

Always wanted to do something like this.Great job and great project

 

Today was our second class in two days - on Mother's Day no less - but we've got work to do...

We tinkered on a few things that we discovered while the car was up on the rack, spent some time sitting on the grass talking about our previous day in the exhaust shop and then got to work grinding.



We've got it almost completly down to bare metal now.

We're gonna try to get it into a paint booth for a coat of primer before the show, but time is running out...

 

olivepick, you are providing a much needed service for those fellas. its great to see people working on some old iron, especially younger kids. id hate to see some lost to the tuner world

the kid with the grinder on the roof, can you tell him to do mine next?? haha

 

i wish my shop class actually did stuff like this most of the time everyone is just bullshitting for an hour besides the few that are actually their to work on cars

 

great thread. i love to see this going on. the wagon is coming along well!

 

Cool build, If thats the one that was on craigslist for like 1000 bucks I almost bought that thing. Good for you. I'll be looking for it at billet proof.