My name is Jay Arrow and I just signed up to this forum. I'm a retired Mass. LEO. I have had my 57 2 door custom for about 10 years and have always referred to it as my "late model car" because I have been working on 34 Fords, one of which I have been driving for 40 plus years. My 57 was for the most part on the back burner and I just worked on it off and on.
All of my 34 Fords are done, so now I would like to put more time into the 57 custom. The 312 is rebuilt and all of the mechanics are done. I took the column shift linkage apart and refurbished it , so it shifts smoothly through all three gears. Last summer I got to drive it around my property for the first time and so far everything feels fine.. The interior is from ABC upholstery and everything is installed except the door panels because I don't want to mess them up while I'm getting it ready for paint.. The new headliner and new front and rear windshield rubbers have also been installed. The grill, side quarter panel stainless and front and rear face bars are not on it at the moment because it is getting ready for paint in the spring of 2013 hopefully. Mass winters are very cold and so is my garage even with the heater on high. The car body never warms up. It seems like there is no end to block sanding and I can't do much of that until the warm weather is here again.
Sorry but I don't have any pictures at the moment and don't know how to post them anyways
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I look forward to learning a lot on the 57 Fords International forum.
Jay
Welcome to the site. I'm from Mass. originally (born in Waltham, Acton is my hometown). Looking forward to hearing more about your project..but first I gotsta ask..Do you really have an E code 70D business coupe as your forumn name would imply??? That's like the holy grail of '57 Fords!!! Awesome!! I'd sure like to hear how you found that puppy.
WELCOME! I like that Your "late model" haha
welcome Ecode,
I'm in Vt. so I know all about our cold winter months, and the keeping the garage warm!
Tim :unitedstates:
Rich
I knew a guy Named Richard Muise who lived in Dorchester Mass in the 50s.
How I found my car is sort of a long story. This is a short version because I can talk better than I type. My brother bought an almost new 1957 Ford 2 dr. Custom State Police cruiser from Hoover Motors in Boston Mass in late 1958. Unfortunately it got sold in the early 60s after he went into the service. After that,my search was on for another 57 custom 2 dr. to replace it.
Fast forward to about 40 years later. A customer came into my shop to have the 289/302 engine taken out of a decent 67 Mustang convertible and installed into a real ratty Falcon. I couldn't figure out why he wanted to do that, but the customer is always right so I did the swap for him.. He spotted my daily driver which was a 2 dr. 58 white Ford Custom that had an FE engine with 406 heads and 406 trips on it. He pointed at my 58 and stated " I know where there is another one just like that one and it is the same color ,but it might be a 57". When he told me where it was and that just happened to be about 4 or 5 blocks away from where my brothers 57 got sold 40 years earlier, my heart skipped a beat. I was hoping that this could be my brother's old state police car.
Well when I got there, I could hardly contain my excitement, things were looking good. It was a 2 dr 57 custom, but not my brother's old car. There were some very distinct different things about this one.
It turned out to be an E code 70 D and I didn't realize what I was buying. Someone put a back seat in it. Even though I thought I knew a little about 57s growing up in the 50s, for some strange reason I don't recall ever seeing a 57 business coupe
After I was educated as to what it was, I got rid of the back seat and installed the tray. The rubber boots over the inner wheel wells are original and the cardboard rear side panels and back panel behind the seat are different from a regular 2 dr. They were
good enough to be used for templates to make new ones.
Most likely it will burn a bunch of gas with the dual quads, but they sure do look nice. I will not be driving this one across the country from Mass to California like we did twice in my brother's 57 custom. His got 19 mpg in the day with trips when we kept our foot off of the end carbs.
Rich I was a Mass Registry cop. Do You remember them? Later they merged with the Mass State Police.
I wish everyone a happy and prosperous New Year.
Jay
Please post photos...we all want to see this!
Rob
All of my pictures got lost when everything was transferred from the old computer to this new computer that I just got for Christmas. Maybe they are there somewhere. I'll have to wait to have my daughter find them. I was able to find 3 pictures that were taken a few years ago. I will be happy to email them to an email address of a fellow member that knows how to post them on the forum for me.
Jay A.
Quote from: Ecode70D on 2013-01-01 15:17
Rich
I knew a guy Named Richard Muise who lived in Dorchester Mass in the 50s.
Wow! and welcome Jay, just wonder how many Rich Muises could have lived in Massachusetts at any given time?
Were did you find the package tray? I've searched on and off for one even though am starting to think a fold down wagon seat would work out better what with grandkids to haul around.
And Rich is right by my way of thinking you do have the "holy grail" and for me not just for 57s but the'' HOLY GRAIL''.
Zap- :unitedstates:
Welcome Ecode70D, looking forward to seeing your '57.
That sounds like an incredible Business Sedan, and a cool story to go with it. The only thing I can think of that would be more rare would be an F-code 70D. There were a couple, That white Phase 1 really does it for me. Jay, if you want to send the pics to me, I can post them for you...JPotter "at" 57fordsforever dot com.....
Jay...Talk about being in the right place at the right time...e code 70D without even knowing what you were buying...That's incredible.
I'm not sure I've even been in Dorchester ...so unfortunately I guess we're not old lost aquaintences. I lived in Waltham til I was ten(1956)moved to Acton, schooled, married, had a kid, moved to Calif. in '69. I don't remember the "registry cops"..my next door neighbor was a state trooper...when they were building 395, he patrolled the yet unopened stretches. I had a 421 HO Pontiac, and he told me one day if I wanted to see what it would do against a State trooper's car, to meet him up there..I did... He took me off the line but I caught him at 110.
You got me reminiscing now..remember Arnie (woo-woo) Ginsburg and the Night Train Show? There use to be three car-hop drive-ins we went to..Adventure Car Hop in Saugus, Richard's Drive-in near the Route2 rotary in Cambridge, and one on the Cambridge side of the Charles (Storrow drive?) whose name I can't recall.Maybe it was Richard's and I can't remember the one near the rotary. Went to Franklin Institute of Technology in Boston for a few years,.. evenings.
Rich
Obviously it was another person that I knew in the 50s with the same name. He would have been a few years older than you.
You are right about being in the right place at the right time. When I told a friend of mine that I was going to look at a 57 custom, he stated to me " With my luck it will be a business coupe". I really didn't know what he was talking about. All I was after was a 57 two door Ford Custom ONLY!!!. I didn't care if it had a 6 or an 8 cylinders, or if it was standard or automatic. He is the same guy that checked the numbers and told me what it was.
So the moral of the story is... We have to check out all the leads that we get. I can go on and on about not checking out leads.
The reason that I built up the 58 Custom that I talked about earlier was because I couldn't find a 57 custom 2 dr and in my mind, it was the it was the closest thing I could find.
My brother had almost the same experience as you did. The police in Kezar Falls Maine wanted to drag with him, and he beat them also. This was when he was working up there as a life guard at a summer camp.
I do remember Arnie Ginsburg and Adventure car hop in Saugus. I did get to see and talk with him a couple of years ago when he made an appearance at the Ty-Rods hot rod Reunion on the north shore. I'm not sure if he is still alive.
In addition to the Richards drive in in Quincy , there was another Richards Drive in on Memorial Drive in Cambridge across the Charles river from Storrow drive as you stated.. My wife worked there a a car hop in the early 60s.
I'll post some pictures as soon as I can.
Jay
What a great find, an E-code and Business Sedan! Wow!!!
Thank you for saving it.
Thanks for joining the forum. We all will be really interested with your progress on such a unique '57 Ford.
Arnie Ginsberg....Love these albums
I grew up listening to Arnie Ginsburg albums in my Dad's garage, True entertainment!
Tim :unitedstates:
Jay..I got my drives mixed up...couldn't remember which one was on the Cambridge side. I wonder what the name of the drive-in at the end of route 2 was?? Your wife was a car-hop at Richard's in the 60's...heck, I probably flirted with her. One night at that other drive-in, a truck pulled in towing a big blown dragster..willy's I think. Anyway, they backed it off the trailer, fired that open-headered baby up, made two laps around the drive-in and back on the trailer and gone before the cops got there! Us country boys just sat there with our mouths wide open.
Arnie Ginsburg was a night time DJ..didn't even know he put out records...interesting.
Thank you for saving it.
Suede57ford
I had to save this one.
Sometimes I feel that we are just caretakers of these beautiful old pieces of our American history and our youth.
That's why I made a promise to myself that if I made any changes to it, they wound not be permanent.
So the aftermarket heavy duty sway bar, the full synchromesh 3 speed transmission and carburetors are not as original and could be replaced by just bolting them back on.
Rich..... http://leemichaelwithers.tripod.com/cruisin.htm I've had 55 to 63 for 40 years now.Each year has a different DJ from around the country.1960 is Dick Biondi (Buffalo NY)for more of the East coast stuff for ya.
F57...thanks for the link ...I'll check it out.
Ecode...I think your right on target with the way your redoing yours...there are some things that just need to be kept as is or revertible (is that a word?) whenever practical....and that comes from someone who for some reason feels a need to modify anything and everything.LOL
Rich
Thanks for the approval on my thoughts on not making permanent changes. I do respect the fact that everyone has the right to do whatever he feels like doing to his own cars though.
I even saw a 57 Thunderbird at a car cruise one night that was powered by a C word engine. That to me was as bad as it gets.
Now you have me wondering about the name of the drive in on RT 2. Was this one on the other side of Cambridge?
(Your wife was a car-hop at Richard's in the 60's...heck, I probably flirted with her) If she was real pretty and spoke with a German accent and it was about 1964, You probably did.
I still can't figure out why I can't even send pictures with my brand new computer. It will be another week or so until my daughter gets back. I hope that she sticks around long enough to fix this thing for me.
Jay
It's been 25 years since I've been there, but if I remember when you got to the end of route 2, there was a rorary there right in front of a big concrete company...If you were going into Boston, you'd turn right off the rotary and over a bridge with Arthur D. Little on the right and that drive in on the left. The name "Anthony's" keeps popping into my head, but I'm not sure if that's correct.
I've done a thread on posting pics..I'll find it and BTT(bring to top) it for ya.