57 ford fairlane (icky) rat rod

[greaseball]

So my grandfather gave me this car when I was about 13 years old.
It belonged to his best friend
(who bought it from a gal who worked at the dealership in 1960 in "almost new" condition).
Eventually it was sold to my Aunt (who painted it "earl schieb forest green"), who gave it to my mother, who gave it to my uncle,
and after that it was parked in the "hog barn" for 20+ years.

Grandpa tried to sell it a few times, but my uncle got a huge "parking lot gash" in the side which deterred alot of buyers.
Luckily for me!


So I started working on it when I was in middle school so I would have the coolest car in high-school.
I still remember how I planned to "tub it out", paint the bumpers/grill, run big N little tires; make a real "street rod" out of it-

But, before any of that could happen, I had to get it running of course.

So a few years passed, I got it running and learned alot of it's driving "quirks"-
Now it was time to make it cool!


Off came the trim, door locks, door handles, grill, stock taillights (replaced with satel-lites), bugeye headlight rings, everything.
If I could shave it, it was shaved!

My neighbor Rob helped me primer it black (his barracuda in the backround), afterwhich I got "port-O-wall" whitewalls
After the whitewalls were on I decided it was "too much black", so I busted out the spray-paint and gave it a white roof (with some scallops for good measure)!

This was all going down when the "rat rod" scene started getting alot bigger (late 90's) and I was pretty happy with my car. I wanted a kustom, but for a high-school kid with no $$$, a rat rod I did all my own work on (with no high school auto shop) got me cool points


Until the electrical fire.
The shaved door handle kit grounded out on the bare wiring under the dash.
(it's been been going downhill since then)

Finally got the electrical fixed to where I could drive it somewhat legally,
but by this time my life was planning on changing pretty big (school in San Francisco),
so back out to Grandpa's it went
(now I had 58 fenders and a 57 desoto grill on it, but I unfortunately didn't completely bolt them down and a fender flew off while driving down a country road!)

That was a few years ago.
Alot has happened and changed since then, but the car is finally back in my possession and I plan on finishing it myself, but the amount of work left to do now is staggering....

[shopratwoody]

It can be done with patience. You just gotta want to. I think the only original sheet metal on my
Ranchero is one fender, the roof, left door and left rear qtr. It's been around the block a few times and then
Drag raced to many years. The parts are out there. Good luck with yours and keep us posted
Ron
BTW, mine was my Grandfathers, then my Moms then my Brothers and became mine in 73

[nola1957]

NICE