My son and I are working on a restoration project on a very tired and unloved 1957 Country Sedan. I want to post the photos here, but when I have posted photos in the past, they seem too large. My tech skills are limited (I learned typing on a manual typewriter). How do I reduce the size as to not take up too much space when posting? I expect this to take about 3 years.
If your pics are in your computer, use "paint" to reduce. Try right clicking on a photo you want to post. A menu should pop up with "open with". click on it, and a list of choices should pop up with "paint" hopefully being one of them If so, when it opens in paint, if I recall correctly, there should be a reducing option in the top left. I usually do 50%, but you can play with it. When exiting chose saveif you want to save ONLY the newly reduced sized pic. If you want to keep the original sizing as well as the new, selec "SAVE AS"
If you're transfering pics from your phone, I have no clue.
"If you're transfering pics from your phone, I have no clue."
Send the pics to your computer via text or e-mail.
When "Saving As"...change the name slightly...I add a "-2" and that way the two pics (original and reduced) are kept together.
When you go to choose the pics on an iPhone. You go to the lower left options button and it will give you an option of the pic size.
Usually it will only let you have like 4 pics
Looking forward to seeing pics of the new project wagon !
Abe, that is a real sweet photo !
Welcome and yeah another country sedan!!!!
Mike
Here is almost the start, we had removed the glass and one fender before the photo was taken. This is the first photo of many. I bought this car 50 years ago when no one wanted a wagon. I only bought it because it had a 312 engine that I was going to use, but never did. I finally decided that it would make a cool project. SO my son and I started by tearing it down.
Here is some photos of the left side. You can see this car did not receive a lot of love.
What is the color scheme for your car? It looks like white/yellow which is what mine is.
Mike
with the green dash and interior, I think it's Cumberland Green/Colonial white. That is a very nice color combo to restore to. 312 makes it even better !
Quote from: djfordmanjack on 2025-09-19 16:21with the green dash and interior, I think it's Cumberland Green/Colonial white. That is a very nice color combo to restore to. 312 makes it even better !
The door tag says that the exterior is Willow Green roof and bottom with Colonial white in the middle. The interior is Cumberland green. We are in the early stages, with repairing the cancer in the floor. I purchased EMS floor pan sections and my son is doing a wonderful job cutting and fitting the pieces to strengthen the floor and repair the rot in the right rocker panels. More photos to follow. I am going to be looking for good used parts to replace the things I cannot get new.
I am doing that right now.
Mike
Some progress over the past week or so. My son did a terrific job of welding in the patch panels to the floor and rocker. I am very happy with the quality of his work. I help, but he is the talent. We now have the patch panels welded into the car and have removed the body from the frame. Here are the photos of the progress.
more photos of the progress.
Last photos for now. body is off the frame and we are stripping the frame and taking a boat load of things to the powder coater. Stay tuned!
Progress...the elixir of success! :003: :006:
The weight of the bare frame surprised me. I could lift the weight but couldn't manage the length. That flimsy frame is the backbone of the unit.
I found, after replacing the rocker panels, that the lower edge of the door and the lower edge of the fender slightly over-hung the rocker panel. Please, check the alignment before welding the rockers solid.
I replaced the toe boards and also the entire front floors, back floors, inner and outer rocker panels and more.
Nice work, looking forward to seeing MORE pics of the project!
Moving along nicely. I'm envious of your garage! Very nice work. Do you have the body mounting kit?
great to see father son teamwork ! I really like your approach of cutting down patch panels to the minimum size needed and leaving as much as possible good og metal in there.
I case you are wondering, that stack of upper control arm shims seems normal to align proper camber, if special lowering- or cut down springs are used. on 57 Fords they had slight pos camber with bias ply tires and it may be difficult to adjust to sufficient negative camber for radial tires, because of the great number and thickness of shims.
Guenter,
The shop manual says the maximum thickness for the shims is 9/16". It also states in italics that "the difference between the shim stack thicknesses at the two bolts should not exceed 1/8". That if followed severely limits the caster adjustment. I was able to get about 3 degrees by using '59 upper arms, shafts and bushings and moving the arms rearward. The bushings are similar to early Mustang ones. The best way to solve the problem would be to modify the frame but that is another story...
Lynn
Just modify everything!
There may be other technical issues but 1/8" shim pack difference limits the bind stress on the adjustment bolts.
Thanks to all for the advice. This car is in pretty rough shape to start, so I am not expecting a show winner. I know it can be done with enough money and time, mostly money! I appreciate the advice to modify the vehicle, but in my experience, I find that I like the original cars the best. No slam on those that modify and change things, it is your car and you need to do whatever makes you happy. My philosophy is LITFA!
I get that. I sometimes cringe at the thought of modifying my car so I try to make the changes easily reversible". I was really trying to point out that that the way those shims were stacked is potentially unsafe as it specified in the shop manual to NOT do it that way. :001:
Hello Lynn, No offense intended. I bought this car in the early 1980's with the intention of just using the engine. The alignment must have been done long before that. I painted the old shims 4 different colors for the location. My alignment guy wants the front end with the shims in as it was the last time it was aligned. So, when I put it together, I am going to put those shims in before I take it to the shop. He will replace it with new shims. This car was driven by a friend for a couple of weeks back about a year after I bought it. Since then, it has been stored outdoors with no love for most of 40 years.
I am glad I did not try and drive it anywhere. we pulled the plug on the rear end and it had NO fluid. The plug was loose, so it apparently leaked out over the years.
After a few months of disassembly, we are now starting the rebuild. The frame and suspension have been powder coated and we are now ready to start building up from the bottom.
Update on the rear end. I pulled it apart to have the housing powder coated and found there was about a quart of old liquid rear end grease in the unit. The reason that nothing came out when the drain plug was removed, is that about a fist side amount of the rear end grease had congealed and was blocking the fluid from coming out the drain. The gears look good, if just a little black from the old fluid. I am now looking for the red paint to color the pumpkin like the original rear ends.
Here is a photo of the foundation for the build.
pretty! Another one being done right!
I paint them with red oxide primer from a rattle can and finish off with a matt clear.
Quote from: gasman826 on 2025-10-15 08:32I paint them with red oxide primer from a rattle can and finish off with a matt clear.
WOW I know what I'm doing with mine :002:
Good progress this week. We are waiting a few days to put in a large parts order. One of our suppliers has specials around holidays, so I am waiting for the 25th of this month to put in a good order to finish the front suspension, brakes and rear end. I am toying with the idea of bumping up the gear ratio so I can cruise at 70 with the engine spinning at 2500 instead of 3000 RPM. I did this on my 56 pickup and was amazed that it did not affect the power at take off.
So this week, I finished the rear brakes and have them mounted to the backing plates. My body man has completed the doors and tailgate and it is now all in prime waiting for the color coat. I hope to have a rolling chassis in the after Halloween, In the mean time, we are going to work on the rear end pumpkin.
two more photos.
Looking good!
X2, the fun part is going to start soon!
Not much progress to take photos of this week, but we did start on replacing the rear pinion seal and resetting the preload on the pinion. Great videos on how to do this and something that I have never done. we cleaned up the rear end housing and hopefully got most of the sand from the sand blasting out of the housing. We also had to scrape some areas where the sand blaster did not get all the dirt. The pumpkin was cleaned and then painted with the red primer, followed by an application of matte clear. If it works as good as it looks, we have a winner.
A little more progress on the old girl. We discovered that a metal extension that works with the control arm bumpers to the frame was apparently missing. It likely fell off sometime during the vehicles life. Fortunately, we had a parts car, so we unwelded the part, we de-rusted it and attached it to our frame. We also mounted the front control arms and all the associated parts, along with new brakes, wheel cylinders and hardware.
We also mounted the rear end housing and springs, and discovered another problem. we replaced the original brake lines with SS Classic Tube lines. Always a learning experience, we noticed that the left line from the left rear wheel cylinder to the junction box is about 2" too long and the right side was 2" too short. For whatever reason, this kit was supposed to be for the wagons, but the rear lines are for a Skyliner. I called classic tube and told them of the problem so they can correct it in future shipments. We verified with the parts car that the wagons and skyliners have different housings for the rear end. The position of the rear distribution block on the rear axle housing is about 2" closer to the left backing plate on the wagon vs the Skyliner.
Progress...looks good. :003:
Looking good..........thanks for the updates.
Hello Just read thru your info, very nice redo. Your front end shim pack appeared to be very thick. Was there any evidence of prior damage.
I am not sure why there are so many shims in the upper control arm. There has been no apparent front end damage, but in dis-assembling the car, I did note that it was apparently hit in the right rear as the rear quarter panel and the wheelhouse had ford part numbers on the inside. Also the rear side glass on that side did not have the FoMoCo bug, so I assume that was replaced also. There are some other tell tail signs of damage, but it must have happened back in the 50's or early 60's. anytime after that it would probably been totaled. I bought another parts car that has also sat for years. it is a beater also, and the floorboards are in much worse shape. The parts car did have factory air. The parts car was missing the evaporator, radiator, and the water pump along with the generator. The carburetor and intake manifold was also missing. It looks like it had some oddball engine work done as it is a 312, but it has one G head and the other is an earlier possibly 272 head with the soft plugs in both ends. It also has the earlier rockers on both sides that have the nut to hold the adjustment instead of the interference fit adjusters.
Both the car we are restoring and the parts car seem to have a boatload of shims. The last car I did, I left the shims out and the alignment guy said to leave the shims in and bring it to him rather than remove them all.
The number of required shims depend on several variables. In my case it was desired ride height, desired camber, desired caster, and the desired rake on the car. There were not many options to get to all of my "desires" though, so I got as close as I could by cheating a little here and there. Manufacturing tolerances on these frame was also very loose compared to modern cars, another reason for shim stack differences.
More progress and a few problems. We were assembling the ball joints, springs and front control arm bumpers. We purchased new KYB gas charged shocks. Now the first problem. The two holes that mount the shock to the lower control arm are approximately 2 3/4" apart and the shock holes are 2 1/2" apart. I checked my Skyliner and see that shocks on it have a elongated set of holes allowing this to fit different widths. The shocks were modified with a die grinder and are now on the vehicle. KYB was notified and photos were sent. You may not want to use their shocks unless you modify them like I did. We will see if they fix the problem. No other problems with the assembly up front.
I also purchased SS pre-bent brake lines from Classic Tube. They make a set for the wagon and they are spot on,...Except for the rear end. We went to install those lines and found that the long line from the right wheel cylinder to the distribution block was about 2" short and the short line from the left wheel cylinder to the block was approximately 2" too long. We took those lines over to the Skyliner and found them to be correct for that application. We bought some SS line and flared, bent and installed the rock guards for the right side and just cut, flared and re-bent the end of that line and it looks as good as the factory bends. I checked the parts book and sure enough, the rear end housing is different between the wagon and Skyliner, with the distribution block is located about 2" to the left of the one on the Skyliner. Classic tube was also notified of the problem and maybe a check with them will see if they fixed it. We now have a rolling chassis again!
Ok, just a few photos of some of the progress. We have been using the Hot Rod Reverends method for cleaning and reusing the original hardware, We are salvaging as much original fasteners as possible. The first two photos are pre-sandblasting at the sandblasters. The next three are of the finished shell with the roof in prime.
one more photo
Looking good! :023:
it has been a while, but here is the update. We rebuilt the original Carter AFB carburetor, painted much of the interior sheet metal, and have finished the painting of the doors.
the hood is finished and we finally received the seat covers from SMS. The seats are at the upholstery shop for new padding and assembly. we also assembled and mounted the radiator and the A/C condenser. The power steering components are at Precision Products in San Antonio Texas for Randy's expert rebuilding, the steering box is at Straight Line steering for a complete overhaul. My son is welding the body to repair some of the less than stellar past body work and we are going to fill all the pinholes that showed up after sandblasting. The clock was restored and is ready to go in the dash. Slowly but surely we are moving forward.
Quote from: cokefirst on 2026-03-18 19:52it has been a while, but here is the update. We rebuilt the original Carter AFB carburetor, painted much of the interior sheet metal, and have finished the painting of the doors.
What color green is that? I have a green & white 57 that's more lime green.
Looking great with all that progress. I'm anxious to see it getting put together, but probably not as much as you.
Thanks for keeping us updated.
Rich
Nice work, should look beautiful all back together!
Great job. The green color looks a lot like Willow Green (color of my first 1957 Ford). Great color.
The colors from the data plate are Willow Green and Colonial White for the exterior with the interior in Cumberland Green. I am trying to go back to the original colors. Lots more work to do.
That metal fab work is tough. The temptation is to not make continuous welds until you have a solid strip all the way around the work. Even making, and cutting the panels is time consuming. Keep up the good work. Remember, short-cuts come back to haunt you at some point.
Quote from: Gene on 2026-03-20 15:08That metal fab work is tough. The temptation is to not make continuous welds until you have a solid strip all the way around the work. Even making, and cutting the panels is time consuming. Keep up the good work. Remember, short-cuts come back to haunt you at some point.
Thanks Gene, This wagon had more body damage than I realized and the body work done in the past was not show quality. My son and I are amateurs. I am not expecting a pebble beach restoration, but we are doing everything to the best of our abilities. This is our third, body of frame, restoration and probably the most difficult do to the previous damage and the body rot. Not having unlimited funds, we have to stop at a certain point. My goal is to have a vehicle that looks, and drives like a new car in 1957. We are trying to use as much OE hardware and the factory equipment. A Pertronix unit in the OE distributor, but no disc brakes, or modern A/C. The original signal seek AM radio and the factory upholstery. I have to use carpet as there is no reproduction of the heavy green rubber floor mats and I have to compromise on the wheel well covers, since they are not available anymore. This will not be perfect by any means, but I hope to bring back the memories of "my folks owned one just like that".
Here is an update. We have been slowly working on the project among other car maintenance. We installed the rebuilt steering column and filled it with fluid. Lucky us, it leaked. it will be removed and returned to the company for resealing. The nose cap and both front fenders got their underside Colonial White paint and the Willow Green paint to the lower fender. The fenders will get the final coat of Colonial White on the upper section.
The seat covers were installed on the front and rear seats and they will be wrapped in plastic for eventual mounting once the body is completed. We will be painting the body with sealer and then starts the job of painting the inside and underside of before we assemble the car, piece by piece.
The 312 CID power plant is awaiting the expert overhaul of The Y-Block Guy. Tim built the engine for my 1956 frame off restoration of my 56 F100 and it runs like a clock. Enjoy the photos while we continue to slowly put this car back together.
More photos
Looking very nice! :006:
Nice job. Might have missed it but single stage or base/clear paint?
Outstanding work! Coming together beautifully!
Very nice! Those "seat covers" look really really good........who made them?
The seat covers are from SMS. I have an upholstery guy install them. Unfortunately, SMS finished them 4" too wide and the upholstery shop had to disassemble, remove some material and resew the covers. He did an excellent job. I think if I have the old covers to use as a pattern, I would just buy the material and have the upholstery shop assemble them. For the cost, I think they should have fit. I am not going to beat up on SMS too much, as they have stuff that NO ONE has, and if you are into a restoration, vs a resto-mod, finding the correct parts is a Godsend.
For the question on the paint, I am using single stage on the interior trim, dash, etc, but base and clear on the exterior. Once the fenders get the Colonial white on top, the next job is to paint the body shell. I am going to use a rotisserie for the body shell, The underside of the body will be painted in single stage, colonial white as well as the interior firewall and floorpan. The rear tire well area is going to be Cumberland green, as per originnal. Since I cannot get the heavy vinyl rear wheel well covers, I am going to use a truck bed coating for texture, then paint over that with the Cumberland Green. Some stuff is absolutely not obtainable.
VERY NICE! What heavy vinyl rear wheel rear wheel covers? Just a little confused (as normal)....
Lynn, he is doing a station wagon. I would guess the original wheel well covers for the interior were a molded plastic/vinyl.......whatever they were using 70 years ago.
Now I know what a "Country Seday" is... Just another day in paradise! :002:
Rich, you are correct. The wagon had a heavy vinyl molded covers that were glued to the metal wheel housing covers. They vinyl had a texture, much like a faux leather grain. So that I have some texture to the metal housing in the interior, I am going to spray a light coat of epoxy truck bed coating to the fender wells, then paint them Cumberland green to match the rest of the painted interior pieces. My goal it to have the vehicle look as close to stock as possible.
I've done tintable bed liner with great success...great color match, very durable, one spray. I sprayed silver tinted bed liner in the inner wheel wells and entire bottom. It has been on the road for four years with no fade, peel or stone chipping.
I love the tintable bed liner! Used it on the Ranchero and my sister's MGB.