Quote:
Originally Posted by mr_rye89
And she'll do 70, that's pretty good!
I still have my '59 Ford up on jack stands at the moment, the new Mustang 3 speed 3.03/toploader is finally fitted to the 223. I just need to build a plate to adapt the tranny mount to the cross member, replace the muffler, have a longer drive shaft built/fitted, de rust the engine, maybe replace the radiator...........
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She may do more than 70...it was night on a vacant stretch of rural road marked 45 in a car that doesn't have a current plate or the transfered title or seatbelts...I didn't have the err, um ...Stupidity (I think that's the word I'm looking for) to push it to it's limit. The carb is still unrebuilt and not dialed in. The 110 speedo is probably optimistic for even the 8 cylinder that has 10 more horses, but it probably has 85 in it if everything is working to spec... Gotta test it on a faster road. Highway 16 on a empty hour would probably work. The trans only heated up to 160f on the last AutoZone trip (when With the clothes fuel filter it was doing 215f before) so things are getting better. I changed the trans fluid again after the 70 run and the whale oil had been diluted to the point it looked like motor oil instead of crude oil...I need to take it on another test drive with the cleaner fluid.
Good luck on your 59 project.
Quote:
Originally Posted by bgadow
When I dropped the fuel tank on my 51 Ford it looked terrible inside; I'd planned on coating it so I ordered a POR-15 fuel tank sealer kit. First step they include is an enzymatic cleaner. After that was done the tank looked so nice I never bothered to coat it; that was nearly 10 years ago. There must have been 1/4" or more of hard, black sludge in the bottom (lead?) and that cleaner really knocked it out. I haven't had trouble with clogged filters since then, though I do see a bit of silt in the glass bowl on the fuel filter.
One of the many great points of a car like this: you can DRIVE it! You don't have to be afraid of stone chips or door dings. I drive my Ford year round (avoiding rain), usually 3k/year. If I want to go down a dirt road...I go down the dirt road. Henry II built it to drive, right?
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I agree on the advantages of driver quality collector cars. When I was looking I had a goal in mind of a 8k or less driver quality car...nice restored cars of the same model are around 17k and while I could afford that I don't want one too nice or to spend that money on that.
I'll keep that tank treatment under advisement incase the filter keeps plugging.
Yesterday I cleaned the tank out with a gallon of CLR, 8lbs of marbles and about 30 min of sloshing (there was about a quart to a gallon of fuel in there too) I got most of the rust, grit and sludge off the bottom there's still a some flea bites of surface rust, but I think I got most of it. I probably should have focused on the sides for longer since they are still a bit crusty, but things are overall much better. The cleaner mix at the end was milk coffee brown and non-transparent. I followed up by putting in a gallon of the old gas pumped through a filter and sloshed that around to try and flush out the cleaner and residual debris. I think it got most of it. Many moons ago a relative used to own a parrot...CLR, gas, and the junk in the tank mixed together smell exactly like that parrot...ma who used to take care of it while her sister was on vacation agrees the mix smells just like a parrot.
The filter I put on last week is pictured below with the crud it was pulling out of the uncleaned tank. I changed that filter after the cleaning; but before installing the new one I ran the engine for about a minute off starting fluid and let the fuel pump shoot any sediment in it/from the tank on the ground. The new filter is getting some black sediment in it's grooves but only a fraction of the orange the old one was. The old new one pictured was still flowing okay despite the crud so I think now that there's less crud everything should be okay.
So I'm finally calling the floor done. A few weeks ago when I was painting the floor with Eastwood rust encapsulator I ground the front drivers rust hole till I knew where solid metal started...I realized to fix it I needed to unscrew the aluminum inner door seal trim, and to to that I had to unscrew the door jamb step. The step was easy... penetrating oil got most of the screws and the remaining 2-3 the metal they were screwed into was dust. The aluminum I only got 2 screws out, the rest I had to grind. Under the step was more rust so I had to make 2 patch panels. One for the door jamb and hump under the trim and a second for the floor. Not having a sheet metal brake or any good sheet metal working tools I had to use 28 guage metal to get the contours right with the hammers, angle iron, clamps and torch (getting the deep bead for under the trim right required a heat and bend strategy). It may not be as strong as the original but it's at most 3" of the new metal between thicker guage original structure (and that bead which is pretty strong)... So it looks okay, keeps the mice out, and is strong enough to keep my feet in... The floor section is booger welded in with my gasless harbor freight BOTB welder...it's a bit much for the sheet metal I'm working with so I switched to soldering for the door jamb panel and it's seam with the other patch. After it was all in I gave it a coat of seam sealer inside and out and a coat of rust encapsulator. I think it's good enough for now.
I have the radio on the bench again now. Vibrator audibly runs, heaters light, speaker seems to be fine, but absolutely no audio... Next up is verifying B+ and signal tracing. Edit: main B+ pi network resistor went open. Replacement fixed it.
Still got to change reverse light power source, and swap the brake switch.
Once it gets below the upper 50s outside like it has working on cars becomes very unpleasant...
If it drives good and there's no more significant issues after this I plan to rent an indoor storage space for it drive it a few times and park it before the road salt gets put out...next year I'll pick up where I left off.