Hi, new member here from Massachusetts, been lurking around for a bit as I have been searching for a '57 for some time and wanted to learn as much as I could before I bit the bullet. I'm 58 and been a Ford guy my whole life, mostly Mustangs, Broncos and pickups, so there is definitely Ford Blue running through my veins.
I finally pulled the trigger on a '57 Fairlane 500 a few weeks back and it got delivered to me today. I know you guys are familiar with the car because I've seen it discussed here in the past. I also know it's not to everyone's taste, but it was a pretty complete car and in my price range. I had thought about several project cars and really wanted to build a Gasser ( I still have a couple of 427's upstairs at the shop) but the wife reminded me that I was still building a Bronco and had a full time job. So, between work and other projects, I figured this would be a good driver that we could use, at least for the time being. Here's a few pics, I don't mind some of the custom stuff like the rear bumpers and valance, tube grill, etc... but I despise the quad headlights. To me the single bug eye headlight defines the '57 ford, so that will probably be the first thing I change.
I know I'll probably have a lot of questions as I go along, so thanks in advance for the help. :003:
(https://i.imgur.com/kNyZ4RC.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/NyyNSJ5.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/LrAfyNh.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/ymQR1sj.jpg)
I like the rolled pan and the rear bumper treatment, but not so much to the quad headlights. It's a nice mild custom.
And yes to the Broncos, I have a 66. :003:
Good car to pull the trigger on.......congrats!
One of our especially knowledgeable members lives in Carver.....don't know how far that is from you, but if your in the cape area can't be too far. Jay Arrow, his tag is Ecode70D
Thanks guys! Carver is about 25 miles from me, so easy ride. I'm not technically on the Cape, but from Fairhaven. I started using Cape Cod as a location on forums years ago because it seems like the only two place people seem to know about Massachusetts are Boston & Cape Cod.
P.S. if anyone knows where I can get some headlight doors & buckets reasonable, please let me know.
Looks good! Gotta agree with you about the quad headlights.
Redoing the headlight buckets I would think is gonna be a major project, unlike what installing the dual headlight aftermarket piece was like. You may wanta sit on it for a while to see if you can get use to the duals. Of all the replacement panels available for '57 Fords, the headlight surround is the worst. Takes alot of panel beating just to get them close. oem Ford replacement panels have come up occationally on Ebay, but very high $, and only seen one in 15 years.
I'm from Mass. originally. Acton I consider my home town. My sister (from Waltham) lived in Hyannis for 10 years or so, they finally gave up and joined the migration to Florida full time.
Thanks Rich, Acton/Concord area is nice, used to go up there to the Concord (technically Acton) Auto Auction every Friday.
I'll sit on them but doubt I'll get used to them; main reason I was able to buy the car "right". I know some guys have posted in the past about them. So if someone wants to trade...... :006:
Any of the used stuff out there worth looking into?
Thanks
I actually worked at the Auto Auction for a few months one summer in the late 60's while I was looking for a machine shop job. Couldn't find one, and that's how I ended up in California. Small world.
Take a close look at the '57 headlight surround. An educated guess would be that it would be easier just to replace some of the oem '57 surround, rather than the whole surround. That guess is arrived at because I know how badly the replacement panels are formed, or more accurately, not formed. Either way, it's gonna involve alot of sheetmetal manipulation and welding. Then of course you have the matching paint problem.
Your "wanta trade?" idea may be worth looking into. There may be someone out there that wants the dual headlights and has a good set of oem fenders to trade. You'd still have the paint issue, but a whole lot less work for both parties. Be REAL CAREFUL with that though, not too many good fenders out there. If their's are rusted as normal, your looking at even more work.
Just thinking out loud.
Welcome along. Gorgeous car. I had been contemplating going the other way from you and doing a quad headlight conversion but I hadn't seen a really good clear picture of one that had been done, until now. I don't mind it too much, but I'm not convinced yet, might have to look at your picture a few more times.
welcome. you gotta love Cape Cod and going over Sagamore Bridge ! all those beautiful houses as well. Hopefully the last 4 storms left some of them standing around....oh boy !
That 57 is great. Do you have any info about when this car was built? It looks oh so familiar to an old custom. those quad headlight conversions were some of the old tricks performed 6 decades back.
I like the look of your car very much! great entry into 57 Fords ! Enjoy !
these are all old customs
Thanks for the info Rich Muise, used to love those fresh sliced roast beef sandwiches at the auction. :003: Please explain when you say "replace some of the surround" , do you mean trying to splice/weld the pieces of the headlight door together to make one good one? Also, when you say there aren't too many good fenders out there; I only need the headlight buckets and headlight doors, correct? ...why would I need the fenders? ...are they matched to specific fenders??? Paint, at least for me is the easy part; a friend with a body shop matches colors to a "T" with a spectro, so that's the easy part.
Junior58, this is all you: :006:
(https://i.imgur.com/fLOREnV.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/iTSOZBI.jpg)
djfordmanjack for a guy from Austria, you know more about where I live as well as the weather than most locals do, lol. :hurricane: First off, thank you (and everyone else, for the compliments) I have no history on the car other than the guy who has owned it for the last two years, he bought it the way it is and put a couple of hundred miles on it.
the pics of the customs you posted are really cool, but I grew up with these cars and to me, they need the single "bug eye" headlights. It's just me, a lot of my friends have shoe box tri-five chevys and to me the '57 Fords were a much sexier car than the chevy's were. I think a lot of the allure with the quad lights was that they made the car look more modern. I'm an old phuck so I want the old look. :deadhorse:
Also loving the factory single headlights. nothing wrong with wanting to go back to that. Just wanted to express that whoever modified yours, they nailed the look and got it out really pretty. What Rich probably is trying to referring to is that the full front corner has to be replaced and, although available, they seem to be the least quality parts of all 57 repro panels. Originals are hard to come by, since most of them rusted out by design and lack of draining.
That said it might still be easier for you to look for and buy 2 og fenders than trying to undo whatever the PO or builder of this car did.
somebody might even like your dual quads and trade you for a straight deal, who knows.
I confess I might know a little more about MA than the average Austrian does :002: Been there before and I have a special information source 'round your corner. hahaha...
Thanks for the pics CJ. DJ, are you suggesting I might like to swap with CJ? That sounds like a good idea, but being on the other side of the world, the shipping might be a tad expensive compared to CJ being able to find a set in USA. If I do go ahead with it I'd probably want to hang on to mine just in case I wanted to go back.
I know I am in the Minority..But I love the dual quads... the whole car is a mild Custom.... love it.
Quote from: Jeff Norwell on 2018-07-05 06:44
I know I am in the Minority..But I love the dual quads... the whole car is a mild Custom.... love it.
Thanks Jeff...it's growing on me, but I got a feeling it's not gonna take. :002:
That said, love your work.(do you have a album of your work? I know I've seen some of your stuff on the HAMB) this one is my favorite:
(https://i.imgur.com/2kbwbR7.jpg)
...and a close second:
(https://i.imgur.com/3WKq5MD.jpg)
So I decided to make a change to the '57 this week; I was getting some pulsing under low acceleration with the original "true" duals:
(https://i.imgur.com/ypYbrV6.jpg)
I figured I would weld in a x-pipe to see if it would help and much to my surprise it made a difference. It really cut down on the low end pulsing that almost sounded like a skip until after about 1500 rpm's.
(https://i.imgur.com/SY4aXvA.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/tzn2OTL.jpg)
Joe, the X pipe plus welding looks great, but that undercarriage is what gets me stunned. ok - quite some undercoating present, but from what I see its all og rear floors and inner rockers and floor supports if not even outer rockers as well. I think I can see the factory drains. nice !
Loving the oem muffler heat insulation plates, 9" and og stepped driveshaft still in place. Clean and non butchered trans crossmember. This is how you want a 57.
Thanks Gunther that's why I bought her, she really wasn't molested. ,(sorry about the lack of an umlaut on your name, but every time I type it, it changes to a question mark when I post it?)
Here are some more pics:
(https://i.imgur.com/m0V9i4k.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/1xAmzjR.jpg?1)
(https://i.imgur.com/mna95KQ.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/mxhmZw1.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/exW14q0.jpg?1)
(https://i.imgur.com/qyYWabs.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/W1Wy8NB.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/CAG6485.jpg)
Thx for the additional pics. Great to see an unmolested car like this. solid rear inner quarters as well, nice body supports and body mounts rubber parts. solid frame welds. That front radiator core support is so nice. usually these are dented or torn from abuse. clean Fordomatic and what seems to be the og plug in the spare wheel well. You got to love those details!
Quote from: RICH MUISE on 2022-01-19 07:31..... I'll look, but I don't think I ever put one together for the "member's rides". We haven't done a very good job here of having a good picture section for member's rides.
After reading Rich's comment in the "Remanufactured Y-Block for my car" thread on how we haven't done a good job on the "member's rides" thread, I realized he was right and decided to update mine.
I always hated my quad light conversion and bought the car because of the rear roll pan/bumper mod, al the while knowing I would change it back some day.
First thing i did was get rid of the Tube grill:
(https://i.imgur.com/qZDulre.jpg)
Then I cut out the quads and welded in a set of original headlight doors which I had purchased from JPotter. He came through with an original set, purchased in 1973, for a reasonable price:
(https://i.imgur.com/e8GaETQ.jpg)
The end resulult:
(https://i.imgur.com/nPewbPg.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/ek4m37t.jpg)
At least the filler panel was still bolted together and in good shape:
(http://i.imgur.com/aroZMSF.jpg) (https://imgur.com/aroZMSF)
(https://i.imgur.com/ksfgCbK.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/P5aSOxU.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/8fycTY5.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/uDOeEpq.jpg)
My other rides:
(https://i.imgur.com/nPLYua5.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/GMV5MVh.jpg?1)
(https://i.imgur.com/NpyYpkO.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/zzrAtbr.jpg?1)
(https://i.imgur.com/zTqDO0T.jpg)