Projects New Owner of the 1954 Ford “Mint Julep”

Hey everyone. It’s been a while since I’ve had a thread on here. After I sold my Model A Coupe life had other things in store for me, but I had an opportunity come up recently to acquire Alex Idzardi’s 1954 Ford Victoria “Mint Julep”. The car has been through quite a few owners in a relatively short amount of time since Alex. If my math is correct I’m owner #6. Knowing this prior to getting the car I was aware that the car would most likely need some TLC in a few departments. After working with the seller based out of Florida for a few weeks the car was shipped up and delivered this week. Once we unloaded it and got my peepers on it I genuinely was really happy with the car. I saw the car from a distance at the 2017 Jalopyama but didn’t make it over to it before the end of the day. I’ve seen countless photos of it on here and other sites online. Finally seeing it up close now it really is a bad ass car. I’m going to give it a good tuneup, continue detailing it, and getting it to sit right again. The car was built with 3” blocks and air shocks and now has 2” blocks with regular Monroe’s so I’m going to get that stance back to original again. Outside of the cosmetic condition of the car the motor runs OK. It now has an electronic fuel pump, engine and trans totally rebuilt a few years ago and could use a tune up. The carb will need some adjustment to get it to idle right but it also has a backfire / pop out of the carb at times of hitting the gas too fast. I know these Y block 239 distributors are not the best but apparently according to the notes that came with the car it had a 55 distributor, 13 tooth cam gear, and early 60s oil pump all installed. There’s also an additional unused vacuum canister on the distributor right now? Not sure why. Can anyone help identify if this distributor is in fact a 55 and if it’s worth rebuilding, or can I get a 57 and install that with the 13 tooth cam gear? Any help with these Y blocks is greatly appreciated.

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Great buy on that one….congrats..

 

Congrats, You are Blessed to own such a Kool Ride. Enjoy....

 

I like it! Congrats!

 

very nice

 

That is cool as hell!

 

The double canister was the latest best for loadmatic dist and was used with a 4 barrel in 56 on 2 different places on the carb. I’m guessing your 2 barrel doesn’t have that option.
Your left side exhaust manifold looks to be a 57- up and the right side a 55-56 Fairlane which had dual exhaust,
If you change intakes use the truck gaskets which restricts the exhaust crossover heat and won’t burn the intake paint.
Someday if you AC, the VA and OAP units have a heater and the lines normally go where your heater was removed. The Cal 51 plate needs a metal 54 tag to be correct.
Nice car. Have fun and good luck with it..

 

Sssseeeeeeeeeeeeeeeelick! Fuck that’s cool

 

Go for the 57 up distributor big improvement.

 

Very KOOL! Congrats!

 

Beautiful Ford !!!kool!!!!!

 

What entails installing the 57 and up distributor?

 

I like it! Looks well done!

 

Thanks for the info. Is it possible to replace the double vacuum canister on this distributor with a single? We loosened the distributor hold down, advanced as much as we could and that double canister hits the throttle linkage. But the motor runs better as we advance it.

 

Congrats on the new toy @HelmuthBrothers...bit of a transition and there's absolutely nothing wrong with that...

 

Beautiful ride! Congrats

 

What does that swap entail? What other parts have to go along with it?

 

Hi HelmuthBrothers - Although it's bitter sweet seeing this thread, congrats on acquiring my ol car. This is definitely one car that I wish was still in my stable, that's for sure. Since I built this car myself, I can answer most anything you need questions to, but allow me to chime in , give you history on the car, and some important info.

I purchased the car in Buena Park, California, in a neighborhood across the street from the legendary amusement park Knotts Berry Farm. It was still owned by the original owner, and it took me 13 years for him to agree to sell it to me. I visited him every 4 - 6 months until he said "Okay". It still retained its factory original black with white roof paint. Car was bought new in Los Angeles. he financed the car from 1954-1956 from Bank Of America.

Everything on the front end is 1954 Ford, just subtly customized. The untrained eye would have to take second looks in order to figure out that something isn't stock. I was initially influenced by Jimmie Vaughan's '54, but I changed certain things like the stainless grill surround trim, and the grill. The only non Ford additions to the car are the Caddy Sombrero caps and the '54 Packard taillights. I also customized the small rounded exhaust cutouts on the rear bumper.

Rear parallel leafs were de-arched, and yes there are lowering blocks. I hate hydraulics and air bags, so the only other item added in the rear are the air shocks. Up front, the spindles and brakes are Granada, and automatically lower the car 2 inches. The master cylinder is Ford Maverick - non power disc brake. This is an early production 1954, therefor the cam design is 13 teeth (if memory serves me right). When I bought the car, it hadn't run in about ten years. The distributor gear was stuck, and broke a couple of the teeth when we tried to carefully turn the engine back and forth. The distributor was removed, the engine "washed" out very good, drained of the oil , fluid, and broken teeth, then replaced with new oil. If memory serves me correctly, I bought an early 1960s heavy duty Thunderbird or Pickup Truck Y Block distributor with vacuum advance . An NOS 13 teeth distributor gear was purchased from Dennis Carpenter and installed on the newer Y Block distributor. After new plugs, wires, carb rebuild, etc. the car started and ran like a champ.

Notes: Some time in the 1980s, the original owners son took the car to High School Auto Shop class and rebuilt the engine as a class project. From that time, the engine didn't have a lot of miles on it.
Sometime in the 1960s, the original owner went to a junk yard, found and bought a pair of Thunderbird exhaust manifolds that are still on the car today. He wanted "a little more performance, and dual exhaust".

Interior: The dash, garnish moldings, column, steering wheel, etc are all original paint from 1954! The door panels and rear side panels are original from 1954. The headliner, seats, carpet, kick panels, etc. was upholstered in Tijuana .

The car is named "One Mint Julep" for obvious reasons, but being heavily in to music, it's also due to the song by The Clovers.

If I can think of anything else, I'll gladly chime in again. All the best, Axle

 

Correction: It was the oil pump that we installed which is from an early 60s Thunderbird / Heavy Duty Pickup. My brother and I installed the electric fuel pump. I bought 3 remanufactured original type Y Block fuel pumps, and all of them were junk.

 

So glad to hear from you, Alex! Thanks so much for the info. I appreciate the history and what you did with the car. It’s got a good home now and I’m going to get it back to 100%. Cosmetically the car held up quite well for having 6 owners in such a short amount of time. Mechanically the car seems to be only needing some minor stuff outside of the tune up. Just trying to get the timing dialed in and carb adjusted properly. My issue right now is not being able to dial in timing with the current distributor setup. The double vacuum canister is preventing me from advancing it at all when it actually is running better the more I advance it. The double canister is hitting the throttle linkage. The dwell is reading high around 34 where I’ve read it’s supposed to be around 26-28. With this 55 dual vacuum canister I’m not sure if I can remove that second canister to allow the distributor to advance more, or if I have to replace the entire distributor with a later 57+ version. I’m not even sure if I can swap that in without changing other parts up. Totally new to Y blocks. I may end up rebuilding the carb while I’m at it since it definitely can’t hurt.

 

Judging by your A coupe, this car is in good hands.

 

You did good, John. Wish I had known that the Model A was up for grabs.

 

You have a Load-O-Matic distributor. The inner vacuum line uses venturi vacuum to advance the timing as more air flows through the carburetor venturi. The port for this should be well above the throttle plates. probably mid-carburetor. It works like mechanical advance on more conventional distributors. The outer line, which is plugged, goes to either manifold vacuum or a port on the carb that is just above the throttle plates. This is the conventional vacuum advance that advances the timing when there is little or no load on the engine. It's purpose is to improve fuel economy. The engine will run it's best with both lines properly connected.

Many have mentioned changing to a 1957 or later distributor. The 57 and later distributors have mechanical advance and no longer use the venturi vacuum setup. On these distributors the vacuum canister has only one port and it is for vacuum advance to improve fuel economy. If you ever change out your carburetor for a 4 bbl or a newer 2 bbl, you will need to change to a 1957 or newer distributor. This is because the newer carburetors do not have a port for venturi vacuum. Without that signal to the Load-O-Matic distributor the engine will run with fixed timing. That's okay for a race engine but not a street driven engine.

 

Really nice car.

 

Thanks for the info! Since that distributor has the double vacuum canister I can’t advance the timing any further. It hits the throttle linkage bracket. The motor is definitely sounding better advancing it with more response and not lazy / sluggish. Would it be possible to remove the second canister that’s plugged so I can advance the distributor more? If not, any ideas on what else I could do? I don’t plan on putting a 4bbl on right now, but if I wanted to put a 57+ distributor on it will I have to change the cam gear from 13 tooth to something else?

 

My……,my……,my!

 

Thanks! I had it for sale on a whim at TROG 2018. I didn’t list it online. I just drove it down and stuck a small sign in it and it sold in about an hour. I had to sell the car unfortunately but I really didn’t think it would sell that fast. I anticipated having to list online.