1957 country sedan build

[1930artdeco]

Well, I thought I would start a thread about my station wagon build. It will be (for now) a budget driver. I just want to get her on the road again and be safe, I will do a full resto on her after I retire. I picked her up today and found a few surprises that I did not know about when I saw her the first time. First thing that I noticed, she has no drive shaft🙄.  Not a big deal but it is just another thing I didn?t want to buy right now. I think the tank is toast as well, but I will know more when I drop it. ?Good news? is that the driver side rear wheel is leaking brake fluid.

In Bakersfield for the night and hopefully home tomorrow to unload her and the engine. Which I found out is a 75. It will need a dizzy and headers or manifolds. The headliner is shot and I cannot close the driver side window so it is now shredded.

BUT, I will have the daughter helping me out from time to time so she can learn basic mechanical skills. And she will inherit the car someday, plus once she hears the engine fire up she will be all over her👍. Still have about five hours to go tomorrow and then about two hours to offload and park her.

Here are few pics for now.

Mike

[Ford Blue blood]

Very nice start!  Looks solid with the "normal" wear and tear for an abandoned vehicle.  Reminds me of a 2drht I got out of TX.  Seats eaten up, home to hundreds of black widow and wolf spiders (they don't care for a shop vac) and half the states tumble weeds!

Just remember it is all fun.

[1930artdeco]

Yes it will be fun-if not an adventure. I just hope I did not drag any critters home😱. I will periodically add post and pics as I move through the process. I?ll take awhile though. I did notice some dents facing backwards on the rear floor pans??? Always makes you wonder about it previous life and what happened to her.

Mike

[1930artdeco]

Got home and in her new garage. You know, she was happy to go in as she flew off the car transporter. 🚀. I will start working on her this week-cleaning that is.

Mike

[Ken 57Wagon]

Is it a California car?  Are you going north or south from Bakersfield?  I am in the middle of a 57 Country Sedan project as well and would love to keep up what you are doing.  I have some extra parts as well.  Sorry, no extra drive shaft!  I'm in No. Cal so if you're close that would be great.  Some of my floor pans have been replaced before I bought it and I am curious how to install the back seats.  Keep the pics coming. 

[1930artdeco]

Hi Ken, I actually live in Walnut Creek now where do you live. I may need a few extra parts so I will PM you.

Sorry going to praise the wife here-she and the daughter flew with to Vegas to pick up the car on Sat and drive back on Sunday. I have the bestest wife out there. Then she bought me a sales brochure from 1957 about the station wagons!!!

I will definitely post more pics as they help me understand what people are talking about. So I assume other people use them the same way. I did notice some rather strange dents in the floor pans. They are in the rear of the passenger portion. So I am trying to figure out they managed to do that🤔🤔🤔. But I can?t wait to get back over there and start cleaning her up!

Mike

[hiball3985]

Maybe the dents came from the driveshaft breaking a U joint and flying around..

[djfordmanjack]

what Jim said.
Mike, you probably couldn't care less about the original drive shaft. You will want to have a NEW one made once you figure out your drive train/trans/ trans X-member.
This is how mine ended. 

[1930artdeco]

Ouch😱

[hiball3985]

what Jim said.
Mike, you probably couldn't care less about the original drive shaft. You will want to have a NEW one made once you figure out your drive train/trans/ trans X-member.
This is how mine ended. 

How in the world did you do that ? 5000 rpm and then dropping it into gear 

[glr7533]

Was riding with a friend in a 66 ford when the front u joint broke. Beat the heck out of the floor boards before it decided to fold up under the car. Broke one of the u bolts on the rear joint and then it left the car. It managed to take the barking brake cables, part of the exhaust and ripped off the rear brake hose going from the body to the rear axle all in a matter of seconds. All of this happened going up a steep hill. As if that wasn't enough excitement we suddenly realised that with no brakes and no driveshaft so parking gear was useless we were going to take a fast ride down this hill backwards. Luckily there were no cars behind us and somehow we managed to stay on the road. I still drive past that spot and think why didn't we just steer into the ditch when we started backwards. It was shallow and we would have just ended up in a field.

[djfordmanjack]

woah, that is a scary incident !!!

Now I am not going to entertain you guys with my full story, and I did not stress the drivetrain on purpose. It was part my fault as I did manually shift it into wrong gear while rolling, mostly because of a sloppy, worn out column and gear selector AND a way too heavy aftermarket shifter that some PO had 'improved' the car with. What people do to their cars is often dangerous and I have had several cars that came with serious problems with Automatic gear selectors, linkages, cables aso.

back to this topic, I never really liked the stepped design of the og 57 driveshaft. this is mostly due to the very low floorboard/ tunnel and rear seating in our cars (factory design). When you study the pics of the broken drive shaft, you can actually see where counterweights were spotwelded or heat had been applied during previous balancing. also a crack had developed long before, as could be seen by rusted areas upon inspection.

So my tip for people using the og 57 driveshaft would be at minimum inspect for visible cracks, better magnaflux or use penetrating fluid and developer.
I buildt a sturdy replacement for the DR. So far the oem driveshaft in the CS has held up well. it also has the factory hp engine and trans and the car hasn't been lowered so much. Obviously the Del Rio had been treated and maintained poorly before that happened.

[Ken 57Wagon]

Hi Ken, I actually live in Walnut Creek now where do you live. I may need a few extra parts so I will PM you.

Sorry going to praise the wife here-she and the daughter flew with to Vegas to pick up the car on Sat and drive back on Sunday. I have the bestest wife out there. Then she bought me a sales brochure from 1957 about the station wagons!!!

I will definitely post more pics as they help me understand what people are talking about. So I assume other people use them the same way. I did notice some rather strange dents in the floor pans. They are in the rear of the passenger portion. So I am trying to figure out they managed to do that🤔🤔🤔. But I can?t wait to get back over there and start cleaning her up!

Mike

I'm in Sacramento.  Yep, PM me and I'll give you my phone number.   Here is a pic of the dash I just finished.  I do have extra clocks, radio (not in great shape), etc.  I may not be in much better shape that what you have but we can talk.

[1930artdeco]

Did some more poking around the car today finally. Got her up on stands so I could see what is going on underneath and I wasn?t disappointed. Found some more cancer, big dents in the passenger foot wells, two bullet holes (exiting through the RR passenger foot well)🤔, and rock hard rubber everywhere. BUT, I did find original vinyl seat coverings on the seats👍, and the tailgate SS trim🎉👍. So, Saturday will begin the cleaning process with the shop vac and wiping surfaces down and maybe chiseling away the concrete that is covering everything underneath.

Mike

[mustang6984]

Inquiring minds want/need to know...the story behind the bullet holes...