'57 Ford Custom 300 Tudor Sedan

[Xeen]

Wow you crushed a ton of issues both big and small all in one day there Vic, it sounds like that was a very productive day.

[Vic1947]

Looks like if the weatherman can be trusted, we're headed to Sedalia tomorrow. Still a few minor issues, but nothing that should drastically affect the shakedown run. Got the front brakes bled yesterday after installing the new caliper earlier.

While checking various fluid levels, etc. I discovered the coolant in the radiator was down past where I could see it. It must be leaking more than I figured, so I made a quick trip to auto parts, gave in and bought a bottle of the HD copper Bar's Leaks. I hate adding something like that to a brand new system, but I'm at the end of my rope on this. Dumped the bottle and another half gallon of coolant in to top it off. The WP immediately began to leak out of the weep hole. So I fired it up like the instructions said and let it run for 15 minutes. Hasn't leaked a drop since, but I won't know for sure until we get to Sedalia and it cools off to the point I can check it. I'm taking along a jug of coolant and a pint of power steering fluid just in case. The new PS lines arrived this afternoon and look like they should do the trick. Will install them one day next week.

As you can see from the photos, the hood is on and the grille is in place. They fit about like a saddle on a sow, but from 15 feet the overall effect is nice. Full body shots tomorrow when it's not raining. There are so many things I need to redo, but they'll have to wait until we return from Power Tour. We did get confirmation yesterday that they had changed our registration from the truck to the car. Not sure if it would have mattered, but we're squared away now.

All that's left before we hit the road is to wipe the exterior down with Speed Detail, vacuum and dust the interior a little bit and load the trunk up with lawn chairs and a cooler fill of drinks. Hopefully I won't be calling Chip to bring his trailer down Hwy 50 to pick up my broke down butt tomorrow.

[knomadd]

Looks pretty good from what I can see. I know, as a builder you're more critical than most will be. I'm the same way with my vehicles too. But I bet it will be a blast to drive and get all kinds of looks and thumbs up on your travels. Good luck and safe travels!

[swamp rat]

She looks great Vic! Good luck on the shake down run!

[Elliot949]

I can't wait to hear it went great...

[Xeen]

Hey Vic I was going through pictures on google of the 57' Tudor/Fairlane looking for that hood scoop.
Originally What level of trim did you have to order to get it?
I also noticed all examples I could find are chrome and yours is painted which I thought was a nice choice on your part.

[Vic1947]

Thanks for the words of encouragement guys!

LATE BREAKING NEWS!!

While vacuuming crumbs and etc. up off the carpet, I pulled the floor mat out on the passenger side and noticed it felt a little damp. With that sinking feeling I get from time to time, I felt around and found the entire passenger side from front to back was soaked with antifreeze. Turns out the WP was only a small part of the problem. Yours truly had only tightened the o-ring beadlock fittings finger tight. There's only so much an o-ring can do.

Got out the wrenches and firmly tightened every fitting in sight and all the hose clamps to boot. Spent about 20 minutes with the wet/dry vac pulling as much coolant out of the carpet and pad as I could get. Then scrubbed it all down with a wet terrycloth towel. Vacuumed again and sprayed a liberal coat of Blue Coral carpet cleaner down and brushed it in good. Dried it as best I could with a couple more towels and then set up a little ceramic heater to blow warm air on it. I'll check it after the 10 o'clock news, but I imagine I'll need to let it run all night.

I gotta tell you... this is the stuff that keeps me awake at night. I get to wondering what else I forgot that will sneak up on me at the most inopportune time. At least with this dealio, I found it early on. Silver lining, glass half full and etc., etc.

[Vic1947]

Originally Posted by Xeen

Hey Vic I was going through pictures on google of the 57' Tudor/Fairlane looking for that hood scoop.
Originally What level of trim did you have to order to get it?
I also noticed all examples I could find are chrome and yours is painted which I thought was a nice choice on your part.

It wasn't available on a '57. This hood came off of a '58 and could be interchanged like a lot of parts between those two years. And you're correct that they were all chrome. I had mine de-chromed and blasted then primered the pot metal with self-etch. It took paint with no problems at all. I got an estimate to re-chrome it about six or eight years ago from one of those outfits that advertise in Hemmings... over $400. I really, really like the paint.

[Elliot949]

Originally Posted by Vic1947

It wasn't available on a '57. This hood came off of a '58 and could be interchanged like a lot of parts between those two years. And you're correct that they were all chrome. I had mine de-chromed and blasted then primered the pot metal with self-etch. It took paint with no problems at all. I got an estimate to re-chrome it about six or eight years ago from one of those outfits that advertise in Hemmings... over $400. I really, really like the paint.

Yeah vic... chrome has gotten very expensive thank you EPA... I agree with you though I really like the painted version on your car... Alot cleaner..

[Xeen]

Originally Posted by Vic1947

It wasn't available on a '57. This hood came off of a '58 and could be interchanged like a lot of parts between those two years. And you're correct that they were all chrome. I had mine de-chromed and blasted then primered the pot metal with self-etch. It took paint with no problems at all. I got an estimate to re-chrome it about six or eight years ago from one of those outfits that advertise in Hemmings... over $400. I really, really like the paint.

That explains why I couldn't find any 57's with a hood scoop.
At $400 to re-chrome it I would "really, really like the paint" also.
Sorry to hear about soaking the brand new carpet in anti-freeze, but like you said the bright side is you caught it now instead of later when you are pulled over on the side of the road with steam coming out of your engine compartment.
The thing to remember is this is exactly what the shake down period is for and people do it for this reason, so don't beat yourself up about it.

[Vic1947]

We're back home from the car show in Sedalia. Left this morning around 7 am with wet roads and a steady drizzle. Broke it in as driver on the first trip! I made a tactical error the other day with the front end alignment. When I got it back from the alignment shop, I installed the longer bolts I needed for the shim pack on the driver side. At the same time, I decided to remove a 1/16" shim from the rear on both sides to increase the caster slightly, I also adjusted the toe-in slightly to increase it from the 1/16" the shop had setup. The car seemed to wander a lot more than it did when I took it to them, so I knew both of these adjustments would improve the tracking. Well, I figured out pretty quickly this morning I'd only made things worse. The car was quite a handful going down the road. Probably should have returned home and skipped the drive, but we forged ahead anyway.

As I mulled over the poor handling, it suddenly occurred to me that due to the rear steer design of the Ford, I'd adjusted the tie rod ends the wrong way and decreased instead of increased the toe-in. The rack also seemed to have a lot of free play in it, so tomorrow, I plan to address the play, the toe-in and the leaky lines. I'll jack it up as much as I can and do it the old fashioned way... flat on my back. I've got a lot to do in a short period of time. Gotta get that weatherstrip around the trunk and doors. The gap at the back where the exhaust exits was pulling fumes in thru the trunk and gassing us both. Whew!

I also need to get the pusher fans installed. All the way down, the temp gauge was on 180 and the oil pressure on 65 steady as a rock. When we pulled up to the show, we had to wait a couple of minutes for cars in front of us and by the time we parked, the temp was on 195 and climbing. Pretty sure the two pusher fans will fix that, but we can't head south without more cooling. Pretty good shakedown run in my opinion. Five days to launch.

Not sure yet what the gas mileage was, but I'd estimate around 10 or 11. When I fill it up again before we leave, I'll know for sure. As for the car show, we got a lot of nice compliments and won first in our class. Picture below shows us next to another '57 Custom that belongs to a local Sedalia guy I called several times for help when I needed to know how something went together. He got third in our class. Nice turnout despite the lousy weather.

[Elliot949]

Great Shake Down... 1st place is never a bad thing and a GREAT way to break in the car...

[swamp rat]

Well, i'm sure in the next 2 days you'll get your problems ironed out Vic.
Bummer on the coolant issue but hey you found it and congrats on taking first place too!

[Xeen]

Congratulations on winning your class Vic, I bet that feels good after all you have gone through getting it ready in time for the power tour.

[jlsanborn]

Congrats Vic! Looks awesome from here and sounds like just small stuff on your punch-list. How's it run man? Can't wait to hear your foot in it.

[sduckworth13]

Awesome job Vic, congratulations on the first place award.

[Gus350]

Car came together real nice congrats Vic.

[Low Elco]

Congratulations on the hardware and the shakedown! So glad things are going well overall.
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[Vic1947]

Thanks, everyone. We had a great time even though the car was a load to drive. Spent all day on my back and finally located the source of the handling problem. There's an "L" bracket with two 1/2" fine thread bolts that attach it to the center of the rack. It also has the attachment points for the heim joints that connect to the inner tie rod. Well it turns out the 1/2" bolts had worked loose, despite the fact they were safety wired. That's where all the play in the the steering was coming from. Thankfully the safety wire kept the bolts from backing all the way out. Tightened them up, replaced the safety wire, adjusted the toe-in and it drives like a dream.

I also replaced the leaky lines with the new ones. The shorter line fit perfectly with no modification. I had to reroute the long one so I spliced it with one of the -4AN couplers off the old lines. All nice and tidy and no leaks!

Tomorrow, I plan to call CPP and see if they have a universal Street Beast hydraulic brake assist unit in stock. If so, I'm going to next day air it and pull out all the stops to get it installed. The manual disc brake setup has too much stopping distance for me. Safety first.

I removed the breather assembly from the valve cover and replaced it with a PCV valve. While in the process of doing that, I noticed the tips of the flex fan looked slightly deformed. Felt up under the radiator cover and could tell right away it had been in contact with the fan. There was at least 1/4" of clearance, but I guess at higher RPM, it's either sucking the cover into it or changing the profile of the blades enough to make contact. Took the cover off and straightened the tips out and will reengineer it at a later date.

While I had the car up in the air, I went ahead and moved the rear coilovers up to the next set of holes. The suspension bottoms out slightly when you hit a bad place in the road, so the extra lift should help. Not to mention the fact we'll be carrying some extra weight in the back with luggage, tools and coolers.

[Elliot949]

Shake down runs are more important than people really realize. ..

[flashed]

Congrats on the win and figuring out what was needed on the suspension and getting it taken care of .It turned out beautiful and the 2 cars together looked great .

[Xeen]

Nice work getting that laundry list of issues sorted out quickly.
Woah a street beast hydraulic brake assist you aren't playing around those are high dollar units, you must really be uncomfortable with the lack of stopping power of the manual brakes to pop for one of those bad boys.
On the other hand this instantly raises the value of the car because the guys who really know about hot rods know these aren't cheap so you will definitely get your money back out of it if you ever sell the car.

[Vic1947]

Originally Posted by Elliot949

Shake down runs are more important than people really realize. ..

You are so right, Dan. Not only are they valuable for identifying problems, but they also let you get used to all the strange little noises and quirks that are part and parcel of an old vehicle.

Originally Posted by flashed

Congrats on the win and figuring out what was needed on the suspension and getting it taken care of .It turned out beautiful and the 2 cars together looked great .

Thanks! You could go to dozens of shows and never see a '57 Ford Custom, so having two right next to each other was pretty cool.

Originally Posted by Xeen

Nice work getting that laundry list of issues sorted out quickly.
Woah a street beast hydraulic brake assist you aren't playing around those are high dollar units, you must really be uncomfortable with the lack of stopping power of the manual brakes to pop for one of those bad boys.
On the other hand this instantly raises the value of the car because the guys who really know about hot rods know these aren't cheap so you will definitely get your money back out of it if you ever sell the car.

I wouldn't say I'm really uncomfortable, Brian, more like I'm just not used to the increased stopping distance. I know I'll feel safer with the booster unit, though. Unfortunately, CPP is missing several pieces to complete a kit right now and it will be about two weeks before they can assemble one. The tech looked up my info and put a quote in the system so when we return, I'll get it on the way. Until then, I'll increase my following distance.

This morning I drove down to the trim shop and talked to Jeff about the antifreeze in the carpet. He gave me some tips for cleaning it, but said unless it started smelling musty, chances were good there would be no lasting damage. Pulling the moisture out with the wet/dry vacuum probably saved me. However, if it does start to stink, he said they could easily replace that side for me. Next stop was the body shop so the guys could see the final assembly. Had a nice visit and then headed down to the shop that did the alignment hoping they could put the targets on the front end and give me a readout while I waited. It was not to be, as they had a full house. Set up an appointment for Thursday morning to recheck everything after I fixed the problem with the rack.

Back at the ranch, I removed the grille and got busy installing the electric fans. They have these recesses built in for different types of brackets, but didn't include anything you could use to join the two fans together. So I took a few measurements, got busy on the mill and made some "H" shaped blocks. They hold the two fans together really well. From there I made some "W" shaped brackets out of stainless sheet metal and the fans are now firmly in place. Had to remove the blades and flip them around for the fans to work as pushers. They blow up a storm but are surprisingly quiet. Rather than install the Derale adjustable fan switch, I ordered a 185 on / 175 off preset switch from Speedy Bill. By the time it gets here tomorrow, I'll have the rest of the wiring done and all I'll have to do is plumb it in. Three days left!

[Xeen]

Excellent problem solving and fabrication as usual.
Don't look now but you didn't have to fight that one to the death to get it to work right.
/knock on wood

[Pick]

Vic, it is so much fun to watch and learn as you solve problems!

I have a dumb question though........(but I'm pretty good at those!)

What holds the "H" pieces in place? I see that they have positive stops at the back so they can only come out one way, but is there any chance they can vibrate out the same way they slid in? Or are they held in with something unseen?