'57 Ford Custom 300 Tudor Sedan

[sduckworth13]

Its going to be cool to see all your years of hard work come together Vic. Can't wait to see the car in color.

[Vic1947]

Originally Posted by sduckworth13

Its going to be cool to see all your years of hard work come together Vic. Can't wait to see the car in color.

Hope to have something to post at least by Tuesday. Went in yesterday to look at the tape lines Mike had laid out for the two tone. He'd already shot sealer tinted with silver over the whole car and squirted dark grey on the bottom of the body, doors and some other parts. The two tone lines were perfect and by now the clear should be ready for sanding and buffing. Will pick it up on Tuesday and drop off the front fenders, hood and deck lid... weather permitting. Having the body and doors done will give me what I need to get it prepped for the rest of the interior work.

I've pretty much caught up on all I could without the car here, so I did some maintenance on the shop truck and took the afternoon off to catch up with some old friends visiting from Las Vegas. Tomorrow I need to make one last pass thru the remaining inventory to see if there's anything I've overlooked. I know there'll be something missing... there always is, but this is my last couple of easy days before crunch time. With any luck I'll do the remaining build in my head and spot any glaring problems before they bite me.

[swamp rat]

Remembering the conversation about the hood and how to lay out the two tone break on the front i cant wait to see how it looks myself!

[Vic1947]

Originally Posted by swamp rat

Remembering the conversation about the hood and how to lay out the two tone break on the front i cant wait to see how it looks myself!

Me too, MIke. I sorta, kinda got a look yesterday. Roof and quarters had patches sanded with 1500 grit in places prior to buffing, but overall, it looked great. It's been a rainy, blustery day today. Right now, the roads are dry, but it's supposed to start raining again this afternoon. Just got off the phone with Precision and they said it won't be ready to go until around 4:30PM. Told John I'd just plan to pick it up in the morning. Last thing I want is to get it home and spend a day cleaning off road crap.

To keep myself occupied, I've been back on the wiring. Setup another table in the shop to hold the supplies and tools. Seems like every time I turn around I run into something I haven't planned for. Had to order some more connectors today. Where convenient I'm using weather-packs, even though they won't be exposed to the elements. Finished the pigtail for the radio, although I had to scrounge some of the boxes in CRLS to find the dedicated plug that goes into the back of the head unit. Minor panic until I finally located it. Turns out you can buy them on eBay, so all the sweat was for nothing.

Fingers crossed... tomorrow we'll have the '57 back home. Mike (the painter) took a bunch of photos on his phone of the work in progress, but the only way for me to get them is via email. Hopefully he can send some to me. If not, I'll be able to post my own tomorrow.

[Xeen]

Oh man fresh paint I can't wait to see it!

[Elliot949]

Originally Posted by Vic1947

Me too, MIke. I sorta, kinda got a look yesterday. Roof and quarters had patches sanded with 1500 grit in places prior to buffing, but overall, it looked great. It's been a rainy, blustery day today. Right now, the roads are dry, but it's supposed to start raining again this afternoon. Just got off the phone with Precision and they said it won't be ready to go until around 4:30PM. Told John I'd just plan to pick it up in the morning. Last thing I want is to get it home and spend a day cleaning off road crap.

To keep myself occupied, I've been back on the wiring. Setup another table in the shop to hold the supplies and tools. Seems like every time I turn around I run into something I haven't planned for. Had to order some more connectors today. Where convenient I'm using weather-packs, even though they won't be exposed to the elements. Finished the pigtail for the radio, although I had to scrounge some of the boxes in CRLS to find the dedicated plug that goes into the back of the head unit. Minor panic until I finally located it. Turns out you can buy them on eBay, so all the sweat was for nothing.

Fingers crossed... tomorrow we'll have the '57 back home. Mike (the painter) took a bunch of photos on his phone of the work in progress, but the only way for me to get them is via email. Hopefully he can send some to me. If not, I'll be able to post my own tomorrow.

I can't wait to see the pictures of it tomorrow...

[Vic1947]

Originally Posted by Elliot949

I can't wait to see the pictures of it tomorrow...

Tomorrow has arrived! Just got back from the body shop with the '57. Still waiting on door buffing and etc., but I have what I need to get started for the upholstery shop. Just a few quick photos before I dive in. I was very happy with the way the two tone line curves around in the back. Hopefully the front will be as easy and nice. The filled seams all look good around the tail light housings and the shaved drip rail area ended up nice. Top has a few flaws, but out in the sunlight, only a picky b@$#%^d like me would ever notice. Overall, I'm thrilled... so now the thrash is on.

[Ol Blue K20]

Looks awesome!

[sduckworth13]

Awesome Vic, looks real nice.

[flashed]

Man that is nice .

[Xeen]

Hell yeah, now that's what I'm talkin' about!
It looks great Vic.
You won't make it an hour before someone offers to buy it from you when you go to your first show haha!

[Gus350]

That thing is really starting to come together and it looks Killer. I love it

[swamp rat]

Digging the color choice too!

[jlsanborn]

Fantastic! Love the two-tone Vic, this thing is going to look stellar!

[Low Elco]

Woohoo! Congrats!

[texasld]

Victor, Victor, Victor... Looking AWESOME!

[SamsAutoParts73-87]

That is gonna be one sweet looking ride

-Sam

[Elliot949]

Originally Posted by Vic1947

Tomorrow has arrived! Just got back from the body shop with the '57. Still waiting on door buffing and etc., but I have what I need to get started for the upholstery shop. Just a few quick photos before I dive in. I was very happy with the way the two tone line curves around in the back. Hopefully the front will be as easy and nice. The filled seams all look good around the tail light housings and the shaved drip rail area ended up nice. Top has a few flaws, but out in the sunlight, only a picky b@$#%^d like me would ever notice. Overall, I'm thrilled... so now the thrash is on.

Dude.. I am soooo going to have to take a drive... or better yet you can do a good shake down cruise to Winfield

[Vic1947]

Thanks everyone for the words of encouragement. I sure can use them! I hope I get it running in time for some shakedown runs, Dan. Sure don't want to leave on a 2500 mile trip without a thorough checkout.

I've been nailing down acoustic deadener. But before I could start, I had to pull the driveshaft and dolly the tunnel back up. Between me and the upholstery guys, there were dents in the top of the tunnel from behind the shifter all the way to the back. Long ago, I traded some paint and bodywork for the tunnel work and some other mods. I think they must have used 22 gauge sheet for that stretch. All you have to do is look at it and it bends. Used a big piece of round Delrin and got it back in shape. While I was under there, I topped off the gear oil in the rearend and reset the preload and track on the rear suspension. I had a quarter turn of preload in it and decided to return it to neutral for the trip.

The deadener is taking longer than I remembered. I don't like using a roller on it, so every square inch gets nailed down with a spatula and then all the seams get covered with aluminum tape. I found out the hard way that the black asphaltic material will ooze out when it heats up. To keep it from doing that, I completely seal all exposed edges. Of course, most of this gets covered by carpet anyway, but they'll be tracking around in it before that happens and that stuff sticks to shoes, clothes and especially exposed skin.

[knomadd]

Nice progress! I like the paint combo. It's going to look really good!

Originally Posted by Vic1947

I found out the hard way that the black asphaltic material will ooze out when it heats up... that stuff sticks to shoes, clothes and especially exposed skin.

I found this out the hard way too... No fun trying to chase little spots around the shop floor and the wife really likes it when I track it inside the house (NOT! )

[Vic1947]

Originally Posted by knomadd

Nice progress! I like the paint combo. It's going to look really good! ...No fun trying to chase little spots around the shop floor and the wife really likes it when I track it inside the house (NOT! )

Same goes around here, Duane.

I think I'm gonna call it good on the acoustic deadener. I didn't cover the entire trunk area, but it gets padding and carpet, so I doubt there will be heat or noise issues. Picked up the separator panel that Keith Daleen rolled an offset bead into and the guys at Sure Coat powder coated for me. It looks great and will hide the springs in the back seat.

I got one of the quarter windows in, despite the fact that the factory service manual recommends putting the glass in before installing the glass runs. I had to install the retainer clips onto the channel using a homemade tool and it took some finesse to get the entire contraption snapped into place. Didn't want to remove it once it was in place, so I took the roller tracks out and installed them after the window glass was in and tucked into the glass run.

I finally committed to the location for the fuse panel, so tomorrow I can start routing the wires to their destinations. Precision had my doors ready, so I went down there this afternoon and picked them up. They had the bumpers, front valance, hood and truck lid ready to go into the booth so they should be in color by now or tomorrow morning at the latest. Only the front fenders are left waiting for their turn.

[Xeen]

Everything looks great Vic.
As far as the exhaust noise goes if it's worse than expected and you find it unacceptable you can always add in resonators.

[jlsanborn]

Doors are cool Vic! That thing's a knee-knocker

[texasld]

I just noticed the valve cover paint. Nice touch, Vic!

[Vic1947]

Originally Posted by Xeen

Everything looks great Vic.
As far as the exhaust noise goes if it's worse than expected and you find it unacceptable you can always add in resonators.

Thanks, Brian, will do.

Originally Posted by jlsanborn

Doors are cool Vic! That thing's a knee-knocker

Thanks, John! Got your care package and the engraving was freaking great! Photo below.

Originally Posted by texasld

I just noticed the valve cover paint. Nice touch, Vic!

Thanks, Mike. Like just about everything else on this build, they took three tries.

Taking a little mid afternoon break and thought I'd post a quick note. John offered to do some laser engraving for me, so I sent him the stainless pieces that fit above the knobs on the dash. He knocked them out of the park. They add just the right look to the dash without being too much. Thanks, John!

I've been dealing with the universal wiring harness trying to make it more '57 friendly. I was just about ready to terminate the brake light switch wires and got to looking around for the switch. We all know where it's located on our trucks, but it seemed to be missing on the Ford. Not necessarily a surprise, but after searching high and low thru all my boxes for the switch and coming up empty handed, I finally looked in the manual and found that the switch on these old cars was a hydraulic pressure switch that threaded into a port on the end of the master cylinder. That wouldn't fly here anyway, so I picked up a brake switch for a '68 Chevy C10 at the local parts house. Nothing like some Chevy parts to tune up an old Ford, eh? So anyway, I removed the pedal hanger assembly and drilled and tapped the top of it for the new switch and I'm in business. Time to get back to work!