Do you also have 1:1 project cars?

[RSchnell]

Flew out to California to wrap up the deal on the '55 Fordor last week. I didn't have a lot of time but also managed to pickup a few pieces for the '55 Ford Convertible I bought out there back in June.

The Fordor has been off the road since '79, and is pretty unmolested. The original factory inspection stamps are visible under the hood, still has the original rubber floor mat which I've only seen twice in the 40+ years I've been messing around with '55-56 Fords. No rust through except one rear floor pan has a hole the size of a silver dollar which I attribute to the rubber floor mat, they just trap moisture. Overall a very solid car that exceeded my expectations. The surface rust will get hit with some DX520 once I get it here in FL in a week or so. The single exhaust is going away, in favor of dual exhaust. The old Holley 94 will get replaced with an Autolite 2100 carb & the Loadomatic distributor will get replaced with a '57-up style distributor. That should wake the old Y-block up a bit & add a few easy HP at the same time. Both the engine oil & transmixer fluid looked & smelled good, I have no doubt it'll be a runner. 

 

[Rodent]

Sorry we didn't get to hang this time. Glad you are happy with our selection of project cars out here.

[RSchnell]

24 minutes ago, Rodent said:

Sorry we didn't get to hang this time. Glad you are happy with our selection of project cars out here.

I'm likely headed back out in late March to get some more stuff from Dave and make another pass thru the yard. The rain kinda messed up plans this trip!

[Mattilacken]

I got my Caddi out on the road and it psssed inspection with flying colors. Only thing that have happened since is that the ecm have acted up so I can’t start the car with the key. Wired a start button but was ceaping out on buying a ugly black starter button for 25usd so I used a one this to have… well that fried something between the starter and generator so I have to dissasemble the harness and go through it. 
 

Some pics when I had got it together.

[espo]

16 hours ago, RSchnell said:

Flew out to California to wrap up the deal on the '55 Fordor last week. I didn't have a lot of time but also managed to pickup a few pieces for the '55 Ford Convertible I bought out there back in June.

The Fordor has been off the road since '79, and is pretty unmolested. The original factory inspection stamps are visible under the hood, still has the original rubber floor mat which I've only seen twice in the 40+ years I've been messing around with '55-56 Fords. No rust through except one rear floor pan has a hole the size of a silver dollar which I attribute to the rubber floor mat, they just trap moisture. Overall a very solid car that exceeded my expectations. The surface rust will get hit with some DX520 once I get it here in FL in a week or so. The single exhaust is going away, in favor of dual exhaust. The old Holley 94 will get replaced with an Autolite 2100 carb & the Loadomatic distributor will get replaced with a '57-up style distributor. That should wake the old Y-block up a bit & add a few easy HP at the same time. Both the engine oil & transmixer fluid looked & smelled good, I have no doubt it'll be a runner. 

 

I haven't messed with the Ford Y-Block engines for many many years. I had owned a few '57-year model Fords and a couple of '56-year model F-100's in the past, and this is one of the reasons I've been paying attention to your adventures with these cars. You mentioned trying to get a little more power with minimum modifications and this reminded me of something you may or may not be aware of on these engines. One inexpensive, at least at the time, thing I had done in the past was to get rid of the factory exhaust manifolds as they weren't all that efficient at the time and the manifolds used on some heavy duty Ford trucks with the Y-Block engine used a far more efficient manifold that would bolt on with no problems. In appearance they can resemble the famous Chevrolet Ramshorn style small block exhaust only a little larger. At the same time there are some good Headers available as well. The "Dump Truck" manifolds we used to use are cast iron and do not add to any additional engine noise if that's an issue.