Projects Build thread: 1959 Edsel Villager wagon

PS please go easy on my Einstein-inspired workbench

 

I realized I never installed the brake booster and engine at the same time. When I tried it, whoops they interfere. So I had to raise the brake booster mounting and also tilt it a little bit to make it fit. Ended up being kind of a time sink. I used a floor jack and crow bar to bend up the brake pedal assembly and then quickly jam a self drilling screw through it with the cordless drill. Seems to work fine though.

I'll have to bench bleed the master cylinder and possibly jack up the car on one side to get it to bleed properly, but once it's bled it shouldn't affect functionality. In fact I seem to remember some cars have the brake cylinder slanted from the factory..

<strong>Brake booster - raised/tilted to clear the valve cover</strong>

 

I'm making the battery tray long and skinny so I can install a retro 50's battery in it, although for now I'll just go with a standard 34M battery. Being a frugal guy the bottom of the tray is an air conditioning panel I had laying outside. My horse stepped on it but I was able to hammer it back into shape

<strong>Battery tray in progress</strong>


<strong>Battery tray done</strong>


It would be cool to dress up a battery like this so it looks like an original Ford battery

 

This is what the E4OD looks like inside the tunnel. As you can see the cutout is not quite symmetrical. On the left side I need to clear the speedo sensor, and also the speedo cable needs to be plugged in (not there in the picture). On the right side there is a mounting / lifting ear that needs to be cleared.
Transmission in tunnel


Here I welded up the transmission tunnel. I did a cardboard mock of the pieces I needed and then traced them with soap stone on a large piece of sheet metal, then cut them out freehanding it with the plasma cutter.

I have a Lincoln PowerMIG 255A and I've always had problems getting .023 wire to feed. I read on one of the forums that a new, properly sized liner along with the change kit and a lubrication pad should do the trick. I tried it but it keeps rats nesting anyway. Spent a few hours tinkering with it but to no avail Maybe someday I'll buy a spool gun. Although you can always do fine stuff with the TIG welder. TIG is painfully slow though.. at least when I'm doing it, LOL.

So I went back to .035 and that works fine, although it's a little tricky trying not to burn through the metal. One trick that has worked for me is to use a TIG welding rod as filler (MIG torch in one hand, filler in the other). Particularly when filling holes in sheet metal this really helps. I cut a number of slots to accurately bend the sheet metal so this really helped to fill them back up. You'll get little bumps that you need to grind off.

<strong>Transmission tunnel welded</strong>


And, icing on the cake I painted it all. I used Rustoleum Almond color which matches the color of the car perfectly. I purposely tried this color on the floor since it will be covered with carpet later so if it's not a perfect match that will be fine. I think I will use this color for the engine compartment and the rims as well, but go with real automotive paint for the exterior.

Transmission tunnel painted

 

Working on the transmission shifter linkage. The original Edsel linkage went straight from the column to the engine. I know some Chrysler products had problems popping out of park when your engine was running rough, so I decided to adapt the linkage from the van. One side has a linkage from the column to a point lower on the body, and then it has a shaft that rotates, with another lever/linkage to the transmission. Pretty much all Ford products of the 70's into the 90's had this. Eventually they started using a cable I think.

Anyway I just adapted it by making it less wide, adding a bracket on the Edsel body, and I rotated the two arms 90 degrees, so the arm on the transmission side points down while the arm on the steering column side faces forward. Originally they were parallel.

<strong>Transmission shifter linkage</strong>



<strong>Painted..</strong>

 

Alright, tire time.

I wanted to keep the original 14" rims and hubcaps, but use modern radial tires.

After powershopping I ended up with these Hankook Optimo H724 P215/75R14 tires. They are only $50/ea at <a href="http://www.discounttire.com/dtcs/findTireDetail.do?ra=searchTiresBySize.do&fl=&tc=HANPA7&c=2&pc=10703&ar=75&rf=true&rd=14&cs=215">discount tire</a>, match the original tire size just about perfectly, and even sport a little white wall.

Similar tires from <a href="http://www.cokertire.com/p215-75r14-american-classic-1-whitewall-tire.html">Coker tire</a> are about $150


<strong>Tires.. rims not yet painted</strong>


<strong>Close up of new tire</strong>


<strong>Size comparison to the old tire</strong>


<strong>Close up of the old tires 8.00-14</strong>

 

Really digging your budget build; innovation is what it's all about. Keep it up!

 

Does anybody know a company that sells factory color code spray paint in a can for Jetstream Blue and Snow White ?

 

Well I've been working my butt off the last few weeks and somehow the results don't seem proportional to the effort. This is mostly because I'm going through the planned effort of taking everything back apart, making last adjustments for proper fit, cleaning and painting, and put it back together. I thought that would be a slam dunk but it is not. My original plan was a basic test drive before thanksgiving, and have the thanksgiving holiday to fix problems found with the test drive. Now here we are a week into December and I haven't even started the engine yet.

Anyway enough about my complaining. Here's the steering shaft from the column over to the rack. There are 3 u-joints and a support as the shaft has to go just about a 90 degree angle. The u-joints support up to 35 degrees angle a piece.



Since the steering column normally went directly into the steering box it was also (very well) supported on that side. I overlooked the fact that this support would no longer be there and the column is wobbly, affecting both the steering and shifter linkage..So I patched it by adding this strong support bar. The bottom two bolts hold on the bracket for the shifter linkage so it connects the two and makes for a nice firm feel of the shifter.


I bent and welded a steel strip in a half circle such that I could put a piece of radiator hose around the steering column and it would fit real tight. Then with a hose clamp I can clamp it and it provides wonderful support for the steering column.


This is the linkage to the transmission installed. The blue bracket on the left side of this picture is supported through the floor and by the steel bar in the picture above. The right side mounts to the transmission in the OEM location. The cable hanging down is the speedometer cable, going through the panel in the floor. The bottom left is the frame with the bracket for the steering rack bolted to it.


This is the linkage to the transmission shifter. I actually bent the tab on the front side to give more clearance to the exhaust. I also cut and re-welded the linkage such that it mounts to the shifter arm from the opposite direction, again to give more exhaust clearance. I try not to have anything within 2" of the exhaust.


This shows the shifter linkage from the steering column over to the bottom of the cab.

 

Side note - Most of the raw pictures are 3000-5000 kB in size which is too big for web use. So I originally had all the pictures at 800x600 and 50% quality, which makes them about 50-100kB, loading very quickly but not very good quality. I decided to make them 1600x1200 and 80% quality. That makes them 300-500kB. The page will take a minute to load but you have good quality pics. Hope that works for you guys.

EDIT: I clocked it at 15-20 seconds to load with the larger pictures so that's not too bad.

 

Backtracking a little bit here since I'm using two different cameras.. here's a pic of the empty engine bay with paint. I used rustoleum Almond color for the firewall. I have both gloss and regular Almond, they look very similar. Gloss vs Flat Black on the other hand are notably different. I didn't really like the flat black too much, it's kind of grey-ish. The gloss color looks sharp. Although surely after a few months on the road they will look all the same.


Engine cleaned and installed in a clean engine bay. I painted the valve covers but decided to leave the rest of the engine alone. After a year or two it will look all the same anyway. The rustoleum Almond color (on the firewall) matches the color of the car perfectly. As you can see I installed new brake lines as well.

 

I've been wondering this as well. I did find paint codes here http://paintref.com/cgi-bin/colorcodedisplay.cgi?model=Edsel

I called our local PPG dealer with these paint codes but they said they couldn't replicate the paint based on the code...

 

Looks good. MIne has been really slow moving. I hope to get on it soon.

 

they take soo much time. Every time I get something done I think to my self "you know this would have cost $500 if I had a shop do it"

 

This is my current struggle. I already spent 2-3 full days just tracing through the wiring harness figuring out exactly where and how to splice it. I'm a little hesitant to really start cutting though. Most of it is usable except stuff like the ABS brakes. I decided to leave that as spare wires in case I want to install some extra gauges or whatever. I don't know how I'm going to gracefully install this wiring harness. It is just so bulky and stiff..

 

It is much easier to purchase the wiring diagram for Helm Inc. for the donor vehicle and cut that bad boy down to just what you need to make it run. I did an E-350 460 and was able to break the wire hook up down the four wires (+12V keep alive, 12V run, 12V start and ground) with one more to run the fuel pump relay. The wires can be run seperately for all the other functions you need much like a carbed car would be.

 

I have done the same thing, I also have it broken down to :
- ignition (on during run and cranking)
- run (heater etc, they are only on with the engine but not while cranking)
- Accessories
- Crank

But then besides the basic stuff needed for the engine and transmission to functio, I also decided to use the gauges, lights, starter relay, windshield wipers, A/C, heater, radio, fuel pump relay, diagnostic port etc of the van harness as well.

The deletes are ABS brakes (controller, actuator, along with the speed sensor etc), trailer brakes, power windows, ... maybe some others need to check my notes again.


I decided to keep the under-dash portion for the better fuse box and blinker setup. I kept the original turn signal switch in the steering column so there is no hazard light provision. I can make one but it actually takes several relays to do it if you want to use a simple on/off switch.

The original Ford turn signal switch looked kind of feeble and a NOS replacement cost $250 on ebay, so I lubed the switch really well and started putting in relays with diodes in the harness so there is almost no current and no arcing in the switch in the steering column.


One reason my engine compartment harness turned out bulky is that the van had the cowling over top of the engine. The main trunk going into the cab was on the driver side, then the harness would follow the cowling, have all the connections to the engine by the distributor and then continue to the passenger side where the ECU is. The car has the cowling behind the engine so the wires are too short and it would look really messy to go across the front of the engine. So I decided to have the ECU on the drivers side (fit better anyway since the heater was blocking access to the passenger side) I folded the wiring harness to go from the drivers side trunk to the engine and back to the ECU, and a leg that goes across to the starter, alternator, battery etc..


I think probably my best bet is to wrap the harness really well so it can be anchored in position. I would like to have some form of micro labels so I can leave the labels on there. I dread taking the labels off, it was hard enough tracing wires on the floor, it will be much harder in the car.

 

fordfuelinjection.com can help with tracing the harness and sensor connection if you keep the EFI

http://oldfuelinjection.com/?p=6

 

Yes that site is _AWESOME_ , I've spent a bunch of time reading just to understand how the computer works.
In my case I'm keeping the engine stock and I'm transferring the computer, wiring harness and sensors being careful not to change anything, so if all is well it will "just work"

It does bother me a little bit now that I have not yet test run the engine. The guy I bought it from said he drove it and it ran great, but, you know.... well at least based on my visual inspection the engine looks very healthy.

 

It's alive!

I decided this weekend I should make sure the engine actually runs before building everything else around it and taping up the wiring harness. I cranked the engine to make sure nothing was binding, and to make sure it was building oil pressure (put my ohm meter on the pressure sensor)

Next I hooked up the fuel system (to a jerry can for now). I'm running two pumps - a low pressure feeder and a high pressure pump for fuel injection. Ran the pumps for a minute to check for leaks and whatnot.

I haven't completed the exhaust yet but I hung the muffler on there, I don't like that deafening roar of open exhaust.. plus I want to hear if the engine makes any bad noises.

Then hooked up the pumps to the computer, turned on the power... hit start.. engine cranked for 1 seconds.. 2 seconds.. I can hear a little sputter.. vroom! ahh music to my ears..

Runs like a clock, starts right at idle, never even touched the throttle yet.

So I spent the rest of the day wrapping up the wiring harness, soldering, adding the all important fusible links..

The wiring harness is really fat, and bulky. Maybe I should have been more aggressive about cutting out unneeded stuff. Then again the main things I didn't use is cruise control, ABS, and heater so not that much.

I'll have to see what wiring the Vintage Air unit requires.

 

Wowie Zowie, don't know how I missed this thread.This longroof is gonna do big burnouts and you can even drive it to Canada to visit us,,, but first ,,,the lonestar roundup.

 

Yea it is coming together well. The E4OD has a wide ratio so it will have tons of torque in 1st gear while the O/d should make it cruise nicely on the freeway.

I just went back and read through the thread again myself. Funny how some things come along really expediently and other parts sink a couple of weekends without any visible progress.

Not much happened during Dec/Jan. I did some work again this month. I have to do my outdoorsy stuff while the weather is nice. I was thinking of getting a 5 ton A/C on my shop so I can work better in the summer. It's hard to weld when it's 105 in the shop.

I will take some pics this weekend

 

Starting to tidy up the wiring harness. It's starting to look better but it stays kind of bulky and prominent.

My windshield wiper motor is also mounted here. It normally mounts from the back. I tapped the holes at the front so I could screw it from the other side. I used the back screw holes to mount the wiring harness (after spending 45 minutes to find an appropriately sized metric screw )



Radiators mounted. There are a total of 5 radiators - one for the engine, two for the transmission, one for the A/C, and one for the power steering. The engine also has an oil cooler.

The aluminum radiators need to be clamped, they don't have any mounting tabs. I decided to try my luck with wood. It won't be as durable as rubber / polyurethane but I think it will hold up for a long time, especially since I painted it. I tested the wood to hold up to water. (let it float in a tub of water for a few weeks)






I added a coolant filter to my engine. I think it's important to do this especially with a used engine. Last time I installed a used engine I ended up raplacing my radiator 3 times every 2 years , from being plugged up.

You can see the throttle linkage. I should take some better pictures of that. The throttle connects on the passenger side of this engine. I made a mechanical linkage instead of the original cable.



The fan sits quite high on this engine. According to my calculations the hood should still be able to close I welded up the fan shroud from piece parts I had laying around. The round piece around the fan is the top of our burn barrel. My wife was very angry with me, nobody touches her burn barrel

 

Are you going to be able to close the hood? Thats wall to wall engine. Lonestar roundup,, get ready.

 

The hood is about 3" higher in the center, I have plans for that space the two highest points are that high rise intake and the fan shroud. The highest point is the throttle linkage, I can modify that to not be the highest point anymore... wouldn't want the throttle to get stuck open on the hood!

Sent from my DROID4 using Tapatalk

 

I noticed that this site was already merely supported by ad space so the guy was probably not paying his hosting bills. I downloaded the site just to make sure the content would not be lost. Sure enough now the site went down so I'm glad I did !!

I decided to host it on my personal machine. It took me a few hours but now I think all the links work again. I converted it from a wordpress / php / rss format to just straight html so you can simply browse the content with a browser. Please let me know if you see any more broken links / etc !!

Here's the new site:
http://oldfuelinjection.packrad.net

 

So , do you think you will make the lonestar roundup ?

 

it's tough, particularly because I also have other things I need to be doing. I still have 42 items on my to-do list !!

 

I know how that goes, I should go finish another 1/2 dozen things on my own car that I forgot about.

 

It's taking a lot longer than I thought. A few times now I thought I'd be just about done. When the engine is mounted and the driveshaft is hooked up you just want to fire it up and go! Who cares about brakes wiring seats and whatnot

It pays to be thorough. Like on my Dodge, no oil in the diff, had to rebuild it. And it can be worse. I just saw a thing on TV the other day about a guy who spent 2 years restoring a Ferrari. He put some gas in it and drove it to the gas station to fill it up. While he was filling it, it caught fire and burnt to the ground.