Morning coffee

[mustang6984]

hiball...I will NOT miss the west coast insanity. But...you can feel free to toss a bag or two in the back, grab the map reader/radio control officer and come to MO for a visit! I told Rich last night at dinner (great hamburgers BTW) that I would like to host a 57 get-together summer of '22. with 7 acres for parking...I can handle everyone who comes! 

Love the story about the 57 in Killeen...San Antonio was my home town...and I was there during your time frame for the story! Keep sharing! 

[fordrunner390]

hi guys- more to the true story of my 57 ford. after i stupidly blew the engine drag racing and fooling around in january of 1968 just outside of killeen, my buddy tom (the guy with the 59 ford) towed me back to the barracks at fort hood-got a good laught from the mp at the main gate on the way in who yelled out that fords should be sold with a tow truck for when they break down(i flipped him the bird)  that night we were asking everyone who might know of someone with a 312 for sale and one fellow in headquarters battery knew a guy with a 58 ford ford with a 332 that was just sitting in his yard. the next day after last roll call formation we took a ride to a town called coryell city texas (about 15 miles from fort hood and talked to the man with the 58. car was a four door sedan 332 with a automatic. car had heavy crash damage on the right side and he was selling it for parts.worked a deal with hime for the engine and transmission for $175 dollars. so the three of us started removing the drivetrain that night. i'll tell you about the transplant in next post as i don't want to make these too long------fred

[hiball3985]

hiball...I will NOT moss the west coast insanity. But...you can feel free to toss a bag or two in the back, grab the map reader/radio control officer and come to MO for a visit! I told Rich last night at dinner (great hamburgers BTW) that I would like to host a 57 get-together summer of '22. with 7 acres for parking...I can handle everyone who comes! 

Love the story about the 57 in Killeen...San Antonio was my home town...and I was there during your time frame for the story! Keep sharing! 

I'll mark it on the calendar. Too bad we don't have enough 57's to fill all the acreage

[mustang6984]

That would be sweet...would definitely take a LOT of '57's though. But I'm not snobby...anyone with '58 or '59's can come too...I like those as well! Get Joe to bring his out now that it has the correct number of eyes...and Gunther can hop on a canoe and bring his! 

We'd need to crash a car show in Branson!

[RICH MUISE]

Count me in..........you know I love a road trip. We should include a nice road trip around Branson.

[Ford Blue blood]

Yup....keep this idea alive!

[mustang6984]

Yup....keep this idea alive!

I shall...

[fordrunner390]

back to the 57-reggie pulled the radiator and took a hacksaw to the radiator support and opened it up i started pulling the driveshaft and tom was taking the motor mount bolts out, everything went pretty well being a dry texas car all the bolts came out without a fight-within 2 hours the engine and transmission were on the ground next to the car. the next day tom and i towed the 57 to coryell city and we started removing the 312 and transmission, a little later reggie came to help and in short order the drivetrain was on the ground next to its replacement. after lunch wh started the install of the 332 into the 57 and that transplant was a complete bolt in. the only thing we had to wrestle with was the exhaust(took the y pipe off the 58 and hacksawed it and used 2inch flex pipe to hook up to the dual exhaust on the 57 also had to take the ignition wiring off the 58 and splice in into the 57 cause the coil was in the front of the engine and on the y block, it was in the back. bolted everything up, filled all the fluids and cranked it up. the 57 was running again. called it quits for that night and came down the next morning and drove it back to fort hood. that's how january of 1968 went-more to come.    fred

[fordrunner390]

got back to fort hood sunday with the 57 running great with its new 332 2bbl and patched up dual exhaust. monday after final formation went into killeen to the auto parts store and got both exhaust pipes for a 58 ford 332 dual exhaust-(had them right in stock $12.00 a piece) botted them on that evening and now had a nice, tight factory dual exhaust on her. had 2weeks leave time comming in march of 1968 so i decided to drive it home to new york for a "shake down" road trip. left at 7pm on a friday night drove till i hit arkansas stayed overnite in a motel and finished the trip the next day (saturday) car ran perfect all the way, but just outside of cleveland the oil lite flashed on when i pulled in for gas-checked the stick and it was dry-OPPS! three quarts to the full mark and i was off again-got home to sanborn ny early that evening and when i shut the car off the generator lite came on. started it back up and the lite stayed on-took the battery cable off it and went in to see my mom and dad-i will deal with the car tomorrow.     fred

[RICH MUISE]

Just a head's up............as of last night, the Goodguys show at the Texas Motor Speedway is still a go!! Two weeks from tomorrow. I am so looking forward to at least some shows this year.

[fordrunner390]

hey guys i was so intent on telling my story about my 57, i forgot my manners---lgcustom thank you for the welcome i hope all you guys can relate to the ups and downs of these great cars, rick muise thanks for saying hi i appreciate your interest, ecode 70d-thanks for asking, but the body is not great tell you more when i finish my story. so i am at home in sanborn ny in march of 1968 after driving in from fort hood. hooked up the battery cable and started the car and the gen lite was on-put a volt meter on the battery-dead at 12 volts. jumped th evoltage regulator arm to field and still nothing. pulled the generator off and th ebrishes were worn so bad they were not riding on the armature-just as easy to install a rebuilt unit 26 dollars at napa what a bargain. i was home on leave for two weeks visiting family and friends and nothing made my dad happier than to drive that 57 fairlane he loved that car as much as i do-----more later   fred

[RICH MUISE]

I wish I had your memory, lol. I was talking to a high school buddy last week and he said something about remembering us working on my '64 Gran Prix. It was a 421 4 spd with trips. I barely remember the car, never mind Ralph helping me with it.
BTW, got stuff to do an oil change on the '57 yesterday. I stopped to pick up a Motorsports filter at O'Reilly's before going to Walmart for the Mobil 1. I didn't think Walmart carried the Motorsports filters, but turns out they do, at 1/2 the cost of O'Reillys. 7.99 @ O'reilly, 3.97 @ Walmart!!
Two oil changes ago, I switched from 5-30 synthetic to 10-30 because I never felt comfortable with my oil pressure with the thinner stuff. YES, I understand the relationship of oil pressure vs oil flow, but my brain never was comfortable with the gage sitting at near zero on idle. Overall about 10# more with the 10-30.

[Ecode70D]

Fred 
   Keep the stories about your car coming.  We love those old stories.   Is there any chance that you can post a picture of your car?
We like pictures also.  I take my hat off to guys that keep their old cars forever.  Jay

[fordrunner390]

thanks for all the replies and kind words guys-i have a pretty good memory and for being 76 years old i am in pretty good health, i do have a little arthritis and aches and pains, but generally pretty good. so back to sanborn ny and march of 1968. had two great weeks leave with my family and friends drank a lot of beer and ate a lot of good food-just a great time. on a somber note guys while i was home on leave i found out a high school buddy of mine was killed in vietnam in 1967-i did not hear about it because i was in fort hood. his name was Olin Thrush and he was just a good old farm boy from pendleton ny. he was a year ahead of me in school, i graduated in 1962 and Olin graduated in 1961. put a dark cloud on the last little bit of leave. while i am telling you guys this-do not confuse me with the brave guys that got sent over to vietnam-i never went,my name never came down on the levies for vietnam so i am a vietnam ERA veteran and damn proud of it. anyway friday came and i kissed my mom and dad goodbye cranked up the 57 and started back to texas and fort hood----more later   fred     ps i will figure out how to post some pictures of the 57 now-over the years i have two toned it blue and white-i think you'll like it.

[lalessi1]

Fred 
   Keep the stories about your car coming.  We love those old stories.   Is there any chance that you can post a picture of your car?
We like pictures also.  I take my hat off to guys that keep their old cars forever.  Jay

Absolutely!