Morning coffee

[JimNolan]

You guys talking about alignment and control arms insist I tell you of my experience with my 57's steering assembly. 1. The height of the front end controlled by the spring height can only be played with so much or you'll never get the front end aligned. 2. The power steering control valve needs greased often on my car to keep away slop in steering. 3. The engine has to be running on a power steering car during alignment of the front wheels. 4. Finding a guy that can align the front end of a 57 with power steering  is like finding gold in a creek in northern Indiana.
Just thought I'd add my thoughts. 

[Jeff Norwell]

Hi Guys.
Rich. you are indeed correct,. the bolts are factory pressed in units.. and the nuts on the threads are the ones that came with the car... on both my 57's.... they never had lock nuts as suggested.(they might have been changed in the past.)The only thing I replaced was the lock washers.....
If you notice in the pic. there are little green packs(4) that are the alignment shims.I carefully collected each pack, and kept them together.... when re-assembling I will pack them back..... of course this means nothing as the car will be properly aligned when that times comes.

[RICH MUISE]

Mornin' Jim and Jeff! Great to see you guys on here. You're doing a great job of getting all that stuff cleaned up, Jeff. It's really weird that both your '57s had those small nuts on them when you got them. As mentioned, I figured you just had them on to protect the threads, and as discussed, they are not stock. The OEM ones are much longer (1 1/4 or so). I'm sure the purpose of the longer nuts is to protect the threads from road rash damage. Just my 2 cents, but those look inadequate to me, almost like a jam nut, but that may just be the pic. Peace of mine for me would be either the OEM nuts (really heavy duty) or at least grade 8.

[hiball3985]

Like Rich said the nuts on every 57 I have owned or looked at had the long nuts. Just guessing that maybe the first early production units at some assembly plant used up the left over 56 inventory?

[Ford Blue blood]

Funny, guess assembly plant might play a role?  My 58 Edsel Pacer (first day of production) from the Louisville plant has small locking nuts vice the long nuts on the Ranchero (CA car).  The Edsel was produced on the Ford and Mercury assembly lines.

[hiball3985]

Funny, guess assembly plant might play a role?  My 58 Edsel Pacer (first day of production) from the Louisville plant has small locking nuts vice the long nuts on the Ranchero (CA car).  The Edsel was produced on the Ford and Mercury assembly lines.

Thats interesting. Maybe they went to the smaller nut in the later runs. It would be nice to know what was on 58 Fords. I owned one 58 but I can't recall the nuts..

[Ecode70D]

Jeff
     Those parts are looking good.  Jay

[CobraJoe]

Nice to hear from you Jay; I have been hoping everything was well with you and your wife. I've been meaning to call, but this lawsuit with the neighbor, work & family stuff has been keeping me more busy than I care to be.
We'll talk soon.

[Jeff Norwell]

I have a funny feeling that they used what they had at different plants.. when nuts and bolts went short.. they used many different sources(Ford approved of course) ... but a plant in Dallas may have not had or ran out of that certain fastener... as the plant in Minn.. had an abundance....
Off topic about this.. I must have about 6-7 Cowl/vent grills(covers the wind shield pulleys, just behind the hood and such....)
Anyhow..I was looking at one.. and on the backside.. very clearly... is the Firestone logo..... I check all the others I have... nope... nothing..... 
so... Who really knows what the company used....... 

[alvin stadel]

Joe, lawsuit?  This guy must be brain dead from the ass up. I sure hope it al works out.

[SkylinerRon]

Ford had numerous suppliers for everything they didn't make themselves.

Some parts may look a little different but, they all had to meet design specs.

Remember they used 3 different 4bl carbs in 57.

Ron B.

[CobraJoe]

Yeah Alvin, I just don't get it....

[RICH MUISE]

I assume the lawsuit is over the garage? What's he gonna gain? You obviously had city permits. It's a done deal. New England states sorely need to pass "mind your own business" laws! Good luck with that. Have you thought about putting in a pig farm as a buffer?

[thomasso]

Actually four 4 BBL carbs as the E and F code cars still used the Holley teapot carbs.

[CobraJoe]

It's a long story Rich, I'll comment once it's over as I don't want to jeopardize anything right now.