'57 Ford Custom 300 Tudor Sedan

[Vic1947]

Originally Posted by Xeen

Any updates?

Not much to report...
The starter wiring should be finished this morning and ready to test.
While I was at it, I installed a battery quick disconnect switch. With the battery mounted under the trunk floor, it was a pain to access, so the switch will make life a lot easier.
The replacement lines and fittings for the new rack are in place and the rack should be installed by this afternoon.
The line lock was very close to the steering joints so I removed it, then re-plumbed and bled the brake lines.
The collectors and connector tubes to the X-pipe are out for ceramic coating and should be done today, hopefully.
The .080" aluminum sheet for the shroud is headed for the laser cutting shop today and I'll pick it up in Sedalia on Friday. Probably be next week before I get it bent up and installed.
Meanwhile, I have some sprint car parts to machine, we have more company from TX in town this week and we're taking my dad to see South Pacific on Friday. Have to work on the car between all that.

[Low Elco]

Glad to hear it's getting out some. I almost stopped in at your place, I was up at Dad's Saturday night. Hope the shroud cools it down.

[Elliot949]

No rest for the weary Vic... LOL

[Hammered 77]

Vic I love the 57 and the job you've done. It brings back old memories and what ifs. In 1964 I went to purchase my first car, it came down to a 55 Chevy and a 57 Ford. I picked the Chevy but always wondered what if I had picked the Ford. I've always wanted a 57 Ford and put 58 Edsel Wagon taillights in it.
Rick

[Vic1947]

Originally Posted by Low Elco

Glad to hear it's getting out some. I almost stopped in at your place, I was up at Dad's Saturday night. Hope the shroud cools it down.

You know anytime you're up this way you're welcome to drop in, Chip. We're here most of the time... except on cruise night.
We're picking up the laser cut material for the shroud in Sedalia tomorrow. It's my project for next week. When I put the radiator back in, I'm replacing the 50/50 antifreeze with a couple of gallons of distilled water and Redline water wetter. Also picked up a 160 deg. thermostat to swap out for the 180. If it still overheats after all this, I'm not sure what I'll do next.

Originally Posted by Elliot949

No rest for the weary Vic... LOL

Amen to that, Dan. No sooner than I wipe a couple of items off the list on my bench, I'm adding a couple of more to-do's to it.

Originally Posted by Hammered 77

Vic I love the 57 and the job you've done. It brings back old memories and what ifs. In 1964 I went to purchase my first car, it came down to a 55 Chevy and a 57 Ford. I picked the Chevy but always wondered what if I had picked the Ford. I've always wanted a 57 Ford and put 58 Edsel Wagon taillights in it.
Rick

Thanks, Rick. I would have had a hard time making that choice too. My first was a '53 Ford 2dr hardtop with a flathead V8. It was OK but not a desirable car, even back then. But at $150, it was all I could afford. I like your idea. Little custom touches like that make me smile when I see them.

Filled up Maybelline with a tank full of premium this morning. I re-jetted the carb the other day and went from 74's to 70's in the primary circuit and 84's to 81's in the secondary. Seems to idle a little rougher when cold but felt fine after it warmed up. We're going to an all Ford car show in Olathe on Saturday at Bass Pro Shops so a good run like that will tell if I leaned it out the right amount.

The new starter and rack are in and working great. Those gear drive starters are a hoot to listen to when they turn over. The rack was not without incident, however. The new swivel 6AN fitting from Jegs leaked immediately. I called and they're sending a replacement. I parted the old fitting off on the lathe and it appears the retaining wire was too small and let the swivel connection wobble too much. The backside of the O-ring groove was bent in a couple of places and I guess it was too much for it to seal. Not wanting to wait for the replacement, I decided to try to weld the fitting up and see if it would work that way. I'm pleased to report that, even though it's a bit ugly, it stopped the leak. Now the only leaks I have left are the ones out of the transmission kickdown lever and the rear main seal. The kickdown leak only shows up when the car is shut off and the converter fluid drains back into the pan and gets above the lever shaft. The rear main seal may be due to the fact I overfilled it by a quart with the break-in oil. I plan to change the oil next week, so we'll see. Both leaks are tiny and leave just a few drops on the floor, but I'd rather not have them. Part of the old car cachet, I guess.

[sduckworth13]

Nice work Vic. It looks outstanding as all your ideas do.

[Xeen]

That shroud looks great Vic and under normal driving conditions there is nothing wrong with 165 and hey if you wan't to hot rod it a little bit you can just get it up to 185 first and then have a ball.
Great job working out the little finishing issues that always seem to pop up on a build.

[jlsanborn]

Looks great Vic! How many miles on it now? Put any rubber down yet?

[Vic1947]

Originally Posted by jlsanborn

Looks great Vic! How many miles on it now? Put any rubber down yet?

Thanks, John, just about to roll over 500 miles. Changed the break-in oil the other day and did a few other maintenance items, but I've been quietly chasing a little tranny issue. The C6 is short shifting into high almost as soon as it gets rolling. With all the torque the engine makes, it moves right out, so I haven't felt pressured into an immediate fix. Adjusting the modulator a little at a time wasn't making a difference, so I acquired another one from A&A and installed it along with the correct length pushrod. Set it to 11.5# per the factory spec but still no difference. The new one does have a lot more tension than the old, so I ran the screw in two more turns this afternoon but haven't tested it yet. (Just came up from the safe room waiting out a second tornado warning.) Probably give it a try tomorrow weather permitting.

If I drop the shifter into low using the ratchet feature, I can manually shift it but it still doesn't act quite right. (Won't upshift instantly when you bang the next gear.) If the modulator adjustment can't remedy the situation, I'll make an appointment at A&A and have Danny work his magic. I thought for sure that Trans-King in Houston installed a shift kit in it, but it really doesn't act like it. Long story short, I've been reluctant to lean on it too much in case the line pressures are low. The last thing I need is to have to pull the whole thing out to go deep inside it. Right now if the bands and clutches are okay, everything you need to work on is accessible by dropping the pan. More later.

[knomadd]

I love my Hydratech boosters. I've got one in my both my GTO and my 71. Couldn't be more pleased with the braking improvements. You won't be disappointed.

[Vic1947]

Originally Posted by knomadd

I love my Hydratech boosters. I've got one in my both my GTO and my 71. Couldn't be more pleased with the braking improvements. You won't be disappointed.

That's great to hear, Duane. I struggled with the decision, but in the end, the need for good brakes outweighed the whole "How is it gonna look?" issue.

Speaking of looks, I revised the panels I made for the fenders. Originally, I was going to louver them, but my buddy Keith will be out of town when I'd planned to be there. He graciously offered to do them for me and drop them off where I could retrieve them, but meanwhile I had another idea.

I have a set of dimple dies I picked up off eBay that were just collecting dust. So I used the old panels as templates and cut out new ones, then pressed in a progressively larger set of dimples. After priming and painting them, I used a general purpose two part 3M adhesive to glue some stainless mesh behind them. Used the same mesh in the scoop, so now the outside air has a better route into and out of the engine bay. Hopefully it will reduce the underhood temps somewhat.

[Elliot949]

Originally Posted by Vic1947

That's great to hear, Duane. I struggled with the decision, but in the end, the need for good brakes outweighed the whole "How is it gonna look?" issue.

Speaking of looks, I revised the panels I made for the fenders. Originally, I was going to louver them, but my buddy Keith will be out of town when I'd planned to be there. He graciously offered to do them for me and drop them off where I could retrieve them, but meanwhile I had another idea.

I have a set of dimple dies I picked up off eBay that were just collecting dust. So I used the old panels as templates and cut out new ones, then pressed in a progressively larger set of dimples. After priming and painting them, I used a general purpose two part 3M adhesive to glue some stainless mesh behind them. Used the same mesh in the scoop, so now the outside air has a better route into and out of the engine bay. Hopefully it will reduce the underhood temps somewhat.

Those fillers with the dimple die look perfect Vic...

[knomadd]

Nice touch with the dimple dies and the mesh. I like the outcome.

[swamp rat]

Yea, i like the dimple dies as well!

[Low Elco]

Very nice! I like the mesh. Enjoyed seeing you and Kathy this weekend, a photog got a couple good shots here:

http://mingle.kansascity.com/photos/...ike-show-2015/

Enjoy!

[Vic1947]

We trekked over to Bonner Springs this morning for the 42nd Annual Show and Shine at the Ag Hall of Fame. I think they said they had 107 cars there in addition to the Genuine Chevy GMC Club members. They did a top 60, a top 10 and a Best of Show. We were pleased and honored to take home the BoS trophy. Ryan and Rachel (our twins from Houston) were very excited! As usual, we had a great time catching up with a lot of the truck guys we know from the Midwest Truck Nats and the forum. Summer has definitely arrived however, and we wuz sweatin' it out this afternoon when the heat index got above 110 degrees.

On the way home, Ryan and I turned up the AC to cool off. Engine temps did real good, but the alternator isn't keeping up. I guess with the dual radiator fans, the trans cooler fan, the AC fan, the blue Holley electric fuel pump and the miscellaneous amp draws, the little 10SI is struggling to put out enough juice. The voltage gauge showed around 11VDC with the AC on high. Temp gauge was hovering around 190 which is fine. But I guess I need to do some digging into the electrical system.

The transmission shift points have steadily improved since I put the other vacuum modulator in and machined a new connector rod. I started out with the preload on the spring set to 11.5# like the factory spec. Since then I've turned the adjustment screw in two turns at a time for a total of 8 turns currently. I can now feel the trans shift out of low around 10 mph and out of second around 35 mph. Much better, but the shifts still feel a little soft. I may still need to look into a shift kit. But at least it's getting better.

[Xeen]

Congratulations on the best of show win Vic!

[Elliot949]

That is a well deserved trophy...

[sduckworth13]

Very nice work Vic. Congratulations on the Best of Show award.

[swamp rat]

Awesome!

[flashed]

Congrats on the hardware ,more to come Im sure and well deserved.

[jlsanborn]

Congratulations Vic and Kathy!!! A well deserved award.

[Vic1947]

Thanks for all the nice words, everyone. Several folks at the show commented that you sure don't see many of these (57 Fords) around. Maybe the element of surprise worked in our favor.

This morning, I grabbed a shop towel to wipe up the usual motor oil leaks off the floor. Seems like they're getting worse after every long trip. All along, the leaks have appeared to come from two places: the rear main seal and around the oil filter. The rear main seal will have to wait until winter as the engine will have to come out for it to be replaced. The oil filter is another matter. I've been running a Fram HP-1 filter meant for racing engines, mainly because of the higher oil pressure output (75 psi) from the Melling pump. I've noticed a drip off the bottom edge of the filter and oil has been pooling in the area circled in the photo below. Tightening the filter an extra 1/4 turn had no effect.

After cleaning around the area good, I removed the Fram filter, inspected the sealing surface, installed a new Motorcraft filter in it's place and tightened it the recommended 3/4 turn. Fired the engine, brought it up to operating temperature and ran it up to 3000 rpm for a minute or two to simulate 65 mph out on the highway. After shutting it down, the oil had once again pooled on top of the corner of the block, but the groove around the filter was dry as a bone. So whatever is leaking must be from something else and not the filter gasket.

The pan gasket is a Milodon one piece unit installed without any RTV or other sealant. It has crush proof washers embedded into the rubber gasket material so you can't really over torque the pan bolts. However the gasket looks wet with oil all along the pan rail on the driver side. I'm running a windage tray, but the area where the leak seems the worst is right where the oil pump sits. It's possible the windage tray is shearing off the oil and flooding the gasket along the driver side rail. However, it's notched for the oil pump and doesn't extend that far forward. It's not a huge leak, but it's aggravating. If it's the pan gasket (which is my current theory) it will also have to wait until winter as there's no way to get the pan off with the engine in the bay.

[knomadd]

Just a guess, but have you looked at the fuel pump block off plate? Maybe stick a mirror in there and look underneath to see if you find your leak. I'm not certain, but it looks like a possibility based on the location of it and the circled area in your first pic. It might be that simple.

Congrats on the Best of Show! Well deserved.

[Vic1947]

Originally Posted by knomadd

Just a guess, but have you looked at the fuel pump block off plate? Maybe stick a mirror in there and look underneath to see if you find your leak. I'm not certain, but it looks like a possibility based on the location of it and the circled area in your first pic. It might be that simple.

Congrats on the Best of Show! Well deserved.

Thanks Duane, good suggestion. I think I'll replace the gasket just to be sure. It's a Fel-Pro with a little RTV smeared on both sides, but you never know. It could also be bleeding thru the threads of the bolt on the one side. I'm using it as a ground and it has a serrated washer. It's amazing how fluids with virtually zero pressure can leak past threads you'd swear are good and tight.

You can't see it very well in the photo, but there's also a 3/8 pipe plug in that same area that I'm pretty sure goes into the oil passage. I took it out this morning, cleaned the threads good, wrapped it with teflon tape and reinstalled it snugly. We'll see if any (or all) of these fixes make a difference. Since the oil is pooling on top of that corner, I'm less inclined to think the pan gasket has anything to do with it. But there's a lot of turbulence in the area and after a long trip, there will be tiny droplets of oil along the side of the pan clear back to the rack. The next day, the floor has several small spots of oil where it has collected above and formed drips.

Man, do I ever hate leaks! I try to achieve a balance between the need to seal up an engine and the possibility I may have to tear it down again in the future. I'm already thinking hydraulic roller cam this winter when I yank it to fix the rear main seal and swap in a lower psi oil pump. Kill all the birds with one stone.